The Universe is circles within circles, and everything is one circle, and all the circles are connected to each other. Each family is a circle, and those family circles connect together and make a community, and the community makes its circle where it lives on the Earth. It (the community) cares for that part (of the Earth) but cares for it as a circle - which is to say in a cooperative and egalitarian way, where everybody is cared for, and everybody is respected.

Black Elk

Categorized in : Together Community Circles

The first peace, which is the most important, by Black Elk

The first peace, which is the most important,

wisdom inspirational relationship

All things are our relatives; what we do to everything, we do to... by Black Elk

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

ahimsa all-things

I was standing on the highest mountain of them all, and round about beneath me was the whole hoop of the world. 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. And I saw that the sacred hoop of my people was one of many hoops that made one circle, wide as daylight and as starlight, and in the center grew one mighty flowering tree to shelter all children of one mother and one father. And I saw that it was holy.

mother father children

Let every step you take upon the earth be as a prayer. by Black Elk

Let every step you take upon the earth be as a prayer.

earth prayer steps

We should understand well that all things are the work of the Great Spirit. We should know the Great Spirit is within all things: the trees, the grasses, the rivers, the mountains, and the four-legged and winged peoples; and even more important, we should understand that the Great Spirit is also above all these things and peoples. When we do understand all this deeply in our hearts, then we will fear, and love, and know the Great Spirit, and then we will be and act and live as the Spirit intends.

heart rivers animal

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.

heart native-american children

Once we were happy in our own country and we were seldom hungry, for then the two-leggeds and the four-leggeds lived together like relatives, and there was plenty for them and for us. But the Wasichus came, and they have made little islands for us and other little islands for the four-leggeds, and always these islands are becoming smaller, for around them surges the gnawing flood of the Wasichu; and it is dirty with lies and greed.

country lying dirty

At the center of the universe dwells the Great Spirit. And that center is really everywhere. It is within each of us.

oneness native-american peace

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

passion ignorance men

I did not know then how much was ended. When I look back now from this high hill of my old age, I can still see the butchered women and children lying heaped and scattered all along the crooked gulch as plain as when I saw them with eyes still young. And I can see that something else died there in the bloody mud, and was buried in the blizzard. A people's dream died there. It was a beautiful dream.

dream beautiful children

The sky is round, and I have heard that the earth is round like a ball, and so are all the stars. The wind, in its greatest power, whirls. Birds make their nests in circles, for theirs is the same religion as ours.

stars native-american wind

Peace will come to the hearts of men when they realize their oneness with the universe, It is every where.

heart inspirational life

Everything an Indian does is in a circle, and that is because the power of the world always works in circles.

circles doe native-american

One should pay attention to even the smallest crawling creature for these too may have a valuable lesson to teach us.

nature attention inspirational

Behold this day. It is yours to make. by Black Elk

Behold this day. It is yours to make.

inspirational-life inspirational life

May you always walk in Beauty. by Black Elk

May you always walk in Beauty.

walks may

It is not enough to have a vision. In order to have its power, you must enact your vision on earth for all to see. Only then do you have the power.

vision earth order

Crazy Horse dreamed and went into the world where there is nothing but the spirits of things. That is the real world that is behind this one, and everything we see here is something like a shadow from that world.... It was this vision that gave him his great power, for when he went into a fight, he had only to think of that world to be in it again, so that he could go through anything and not be hurt

horse crazy hurt

Sometimes dreams are wiser than waking. by Black Elk

Sometimes dreams are wiser than waking.

waking wake-up dream

The Great Spirit is everywhere; He hears whatever is in our minds and our hearts, and it is not necessary to speak to Him in a loud voice.

voice mind heart