Quote

Any man who is attached to things of this world is one who lives in ignorance and is being consumed by the snakes of his own passions

Black Elk

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Black Elk
Age: 86 †
Born: 1863
Born: December 1
Died: 1950
Died: August 19
Heyoka
Medicine Man
Tribal Chief
Things
Men
Snakes
World
Consumed
Attached
Passions
Ignorance
Passion
Lives

More quotes by Black Elk

Image
Every place is the center of the world.
Black Elk
Image
When you pray with this pipe, you pray for and with everything.
Black Elk
Image
And I saw that the sacred hoop of my people as one of many hoops that made one circle.
Black Elk
Image
After the horse dance was over, it seemed that I was above the ground and did not touch it when I walked.
Black Elk
Image
When I got back to my father and mother and was sitting up there in our tepee, my face was still all puffed and my legs and arms were badly swollen but I felt good all over and wanted to get right up and run around.
Black Elk
Image
I had a vision with which I might have saved my people, but I had not the strength to do it.
Black Elk
Image
And if the great fear had not come upon me, as it did, and forced me to do my duty, I might have been less good to the people than some man who had never dreamed at all, even with the memory of so great a vision in me.
Black Elk
Image
It may be that some little root of the sacred tree still lives. Nourish it then, that it may leaf and bloom and fill with singing birds.
Black Elk
Image
The boys of my people began very young to learn the ways of men, and no one taught us we just learned by doing what we saw, and we were warriors at a time when boys now are like girls.
Black Elk
Image
All things are our relatives what we do to everything, we do to ourselves. All is really One.
Black Elk
Image
To use the power of the bison, I had to perform that part of my vision for the people to see.
Black Elk
Image
So I took the bright red stick and at the center of the nation's hoop I thrust it in the earth.
Black Elk
Image
I was four years old then, and I think it must have been the next summer that I first heard the voices.
Black Elk
Image
It is good to have a reminder of death before us, for it helps us to understand the impermanence of life on this earth, and this understanding may aid us in preparing for our own death. He who is well prepared is he who knows that he is nothing compared with Wakan-Tanka, who is everything then he knows that world which is real.
Black Elk
Image
Birds make their nest in circles, for theirs is the same religion as ours.
Black Elk
Image
Now suddenly there was nothing but a world of cloud, and we three were there alone in the middle of a great white plain with snowy hills and mountains staring at us and it was very still but there were whispers.
Black Elk
Image
Grown men may learn from very little children, for the hearts of little children are pure, and, therefore, the Great Spirit may show to them many things which older people miss.
Black Elk
Image
The Holy Land is everywhere.
Black Elk
Image
As you walk upon the sacred earth, treat each step as a prayer.
Black Elk
Image
Like the grasses showing tender faces to each other, thus should we do, for this was the wish of the Grandfathers of the World.
Black Elk