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All things are our relatives what we do to everything, we do to ourselves. All is really One.

Black Elk

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Black Elk
Age: 86 †
Born: 1863
Born: December 1
Died: 1950
Died: August 19
Heyoka
Medicine Man
Tribal Chief
Ahimsa
Relatives
Everything
Really
Things

More quotes by Black Elk

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And while I stood there I saw more than I can tell and I understood more than I saw for I was seeing in a sacred manner the shapes of all things in the spirit, and the shape of all shapes as they must live together like one being.
Black Elk
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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
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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
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I was four years old then, and I think it must have been the next summer that I first heard the voices.
Black Elk
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As you walk upon the sacred earth, treat each step as a prayer.
Black Elk
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I had a vision with which I might have saved my people, but I had not the strength to do it.
Black Elk
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I think I have told you, but if I have not, you must have understood, that a man who has a vision is not able to use the power of it until after he has performed the vision on earth for the people to see.
Black Elk
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After the horse dance was over, it seemed that I was above the ground and did not touch it when I walked.
Black Elk
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One should pay attention to even the smallest crawling creature for these too may have a valuable lesson to teach us.
Black Elk
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Everything an Indian does is in a circle, and that is because the power of the world always works in circles, and everything tries to be round. In the old days when we were a strong and happy people, all our power came to us from the sacred hoop of the nation, and so long as the hoop was unbroken the people flourished.
Black Elk
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The center of the universe is everywhere.
Black Elk
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Birds make their nest in circles, for theirs is the same religion as ours.
Black Elk
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Peace will come to the hearts of men when they realize their oneness with the universe, It is every where.
Black Elk
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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
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If I thought that I was doing it myself, the hole would close up and no power could come through. Then everything I could do would be foolish.
Black Elk
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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
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It's in the darkness of men's eyes that they get lost.
Black Elk
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So I took the bright red stick and at the center of the nation's hoop I thrust it in the earth.
Black Elk
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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
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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