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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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Black Elk
Age: 86 †
Born: 1863
Born: December 1
Died: 1950
Died: August 19
Heyoka
Medicine Man
Tribal Chief
World
May
Aids
Wells
Helps
Everything
Prepared
Well
Understanding
Impermanence
Nothing
Understand
Reminder
Real
Death
Reminders
Good
Helping
Preparing
Life
Earth
Compared

More quotes by Black Elk

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Birds make their nest in circles, for theirs is the same religion as ours.
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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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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.
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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.
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It is in the darkness of their eyes that men lose their way.
Black Elk
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A good nation I will make live.This the nation above has said.They have given me the power to make over.
Black Elk
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There can never be peace between nations until there is first known that true peace which is within the souls of men.
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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As you walk upon the sacred earth, treat each step as a prayer.
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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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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The power of the world always works in circles.
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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Every place is the center of the world.
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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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
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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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Even the seasons form a great circle in their changing, and always come back again to where they were. The life of a person is a circle from childhood to childhood, and so it is in everything where power moves.
Black Elk
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The center of the universe is everywhere.
Black Elk
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And when I breathed, my breath was lightning.
Black Elk