Joy & Justice: American Mystic-Warrior, Kristal Parks

[FROM THE ARCHIVE:  August 13, 2019]

One dimension to The Harris-Walz presidential message that people are finding refreshing is the dimension of Joy that they talk of while also talking of fighting and work for fairness that needs doing.  This contrasts sharply with the dour message of the other team, the leader of whom declared yesterday that America is a “third world nation.” 

I celebrated in yesterday’s DM how Kristal Parks is offering a talk on saving the elephants under the auspices of John Dear’s Beatitude Center this Saturday.  I highly recommend attending; learn more HERE.

Kristal is a contemporary mystic-prophet alive and well and living in the woods of Colorado.  Sort of a combination of Dorothy Day and the Berrigan brothers (who were her friends and mentors).  She very much brings together the rich themes of Joy and Justice, the Via Positiva and its relationship to the Via Transformativa in her work and her writings, all of which come from her soul of course.

Kristal holds a B.Sc. in Biology and an MA in Justice and Peace studies and received Buddhist precepts from Thich Nhat Hanh.  For ten years she actively resisted nuclear weapons and spent 11 months in prison for her efforts, almost five months in solitary confinement.  She has worked with Mayan Indians in Guatemala, Hmong refugees in Thailand, and villagers in Africa. Her current passion is defending Elephants.

Following are some teachings from her short but wonderful book where she marries wonderfully the Joy of the Via Positiva with the demands of justice-making, titled Re-Enchanting the World: A Call to Mystical Activism.* She writes:  

Our work for the earth, the whale and the honey bee must come out of profound adoration, ecstatic delight and a vision of the bursting splendor that is reflected in the tiniest ant.  Such work and actions must be grounded and arising from joy, ecstasy, bliss, humor, delight and freedom. Not fear. Not urgency.  Not desperation.

How wise this is!  How thoroughly grounded in the Via Positiva must be all our actions to rebel against extinction.

Kristal cites Thomas Berry who says: The answer for everything is celebration. It’s the meaning of things.  It’s the destiny of things.  Again, The Universe throughout its vast extent in space and throughout its sequence of transformations in time, is a single multiform, celebrative event.

She quotes the Dalai Lama: “The very purpose of our lives is happiness and joyfulness.  That is very clear.”  One can see why the Via Positiva is so foundational to all the others paths along the journey.

And Rumi: “Let the beauty you love be the work you do.  There are a thousand ways to kneel and kiss the ground.” 

And Teilhard de Chardin: “Joy is the most infallible sign of the presence of God.”

* Kristal Parks, Re-Enchanting the World: A Call to Mystical Activism (Denver: Celebration Press, 2003), pp. 2, 82, 16, 24, 6.  For more information on Kristal and her work, see www.PachydermPower.org  and  www.KristalParks.com.

For more on joy and justice making, see: Matthew Fox, Original Blessing: A Primer in Creation Spirituality, 277-292.

And Fox, One River, Many Wells: Wisdom Springing from Global Faiths, pp. 254-267, 377-403.

And Fox, Christian Mystics: 365 Readings and Meditations.

Banner Image: “Elephant family on safari” Photo by Justin Porter on Unsplash

Queries for Contemplation

Do you agree with Parks that our resistance and work for the planet must derive from “Joy, ecstasy, humor” and not from fear, urgency or desperation? What are the implications of this perspective for our inner work as well as our outer work?  And for choosing a new president?

Recommended Reading

Original Blessing: A Primer in Creation Spirituality

Matthew Fox lays out a whole new direction for Christianity—a direction that is in fact very ancient and very grounded in Jewish thinking (the fact that Jesus was a Jew is often neglected by Christian theology): the Four Paths of Creation Spirituality, the Vias Positiva, Negativa, Creativa and Transformativa in an extended and deeply developed way.
“Original Blessing makes available to the Christian world and to the human community a radical cure for all dark and derogatory views of the natural world wherever these may have originated.” –Thomas Berry, author, The Dream of the Earth; The Great Work; co-author, The Universe Story

One River, Many Wells: Wisdom Springing from Global Faiths

Matthew Fox calls on all the world traditions for their wisdom and their inspiration in a work that is far more than a list of theological position papers but a new way to pray—to meditate in a global spiritual context on the wisdom all our traditions share. Fox chooses 18 themes that are foundational to any spirituality and demonstrates how all the world spiritual traditions offer wisdom about each.“Reading One River, Many Wells is like entering the rich silence of a masterfully directed retreat. As you read this text, you reflect, you pray, you embrace Divinity. Truly no words can fully express my respect and awe for this magnificent contribution to contemporary spirituality.” –Caroline Myss, author of Anatomy of the Spirit

Christian Mystics: 365 Readings & Meditations

As Matthew Fox notes, when an aging Albert Einstein was asked if he had any regrets, he replied, “I wish I had read more of the mystics earlier in my life.” The 365 writings in Christian Mystics represent a wide-ranging sampling of these readings for modern-day seekers of all faiths — or no faith. The visionaries quoted range from Julian of Norwich to Martin Luther King, Jr., from Thomas Merton to Dorothee Soelle and Thomas Berry.
“Our world is in crisis, and we need road maps that can ground us in wisdom, inspire us to action, and help us gather our talents in service of compassion and justice.  This revolutionary book does just that.  Matthew Fox takes some of the most profound spiritual teachings of the West and translates them into practical daily mediations.  Study and practice these teachings.  Take what’s in this book and teach it to the youth because the new generation cannot afford to suffer the spirit and ethical illiteracy of the past.” — Adam Bucko, spiritual activist and co-founder of the Reciprocity Foundation for Homeless Youth.