My Greatest Enemy
Sacred Creation
All of this Creation is Sacred
And so do not forget
Every dawn as it comes is a holy event
And everyday is holy,
For the light comes from "WAKAN-TANKA"
And also you must remember
That the two-leggeds
And all other peoples
Who stand upon this Earth
Are Sacred and should be treated as Such
"White Buffalo Woman" Sioux Sacred Woman, quoted by Black Elk , (Oglala Sioux)1947.
And so do not forget
Every dawn as it comes is a holy event
And everyday is holy,
For the light comes from "WAKAN-TANKA"
And also you must remember
That the two-leggeds
And all other peoples
Who stand upon this Earth
Are Sacred and should be treated as Such
"White Buffalo Woman" Sioux Sacred Woman, quoted by Black Elk , (Oglala Sioux)1947.
Resolution of the Fifth Annual Meetings of the Traditional Elders Circle, 1980
"There are many things to be shared with the Four Colors of humanity in our common destiny as one with our Mother the Earth. It is this sharing that must be considered with great care by the Elders and the medicine people who carry the Sacred Trusts, so that no harm may come to people through ignorance and misuse of these powerful forces."
Sacred Circles
You have noticed that everything the 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..... 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 nest in circles, for theirs is the same religion as ours.... Even the seasons form a great circle in their changing, and always come back again to where they were. The life of a man is a circle from childhood to childhood, and so it is in everything where power moves.
- Black Elk, Oglala Sioux Holy Man
- Black Elk, Oglala Sioux Holy Man
A Part of Creation
"I do not see a delegation for the Four Footed.
I see no seat for the Eagles.
We forget and we consider ourselves superior.
But we are after all a mere part of Creation.
And we must consider to understand where we are.
And we stand somewhere between the mountain and the Ant.
Somewhere and only there as part and parcel of the Creation."
- Chief Oren Lyons, Oneida in an address to the Non-Governmental Organizations of the United Nations, Geneva, Switzerland, 1977
I see no seat for the Eagles.
We forget and we consider ourselves superior.
But we are after all a mere part of Creation.
And we must consider to understand where we are.
And we stand somewhere between the mountain and the Ant.
Somewhere and only there as part and parcel of the Creation."
- Chief Oren Lyons, Oneida in an address to the Non-Governmental Organizations of the United Nations, Geneva, Switzerland, 1977
A State of Mind
"Being Indian is an attitude,
a state of mind,
a way of being in harmony with all things and all beings.
It is allowing the heart to be the distributor of energy on this planet;
to allow feelings and sensitivities to determine where energy goes;
bringing aliveness up from the Earth and from the Sky,
putting it in and giving it out from the heart."
- Brooke Medicine Eagle
The Serpent and the Eagle
A little girl asked her grandmother why life is sometimes so painful.
Her grandmother looked at her, considering a moment before speaking.
“We all have an eagle and a serpent inside of us. The serpent brings thoughts and feelings of worthlessness, and the idea that it is other people that cause us to feel that way.”
She paused, and then continued.
“The eagle flies high, sees far,
and hopes to learn from the Great Spirit and to follow the Spirit’s way.”
“My granddaughter, life gets difficult during those times when the eagle and the serpent are locked in a necessary and mortal fight to the finish.”
The granddaughter pondered for a while what her grandmother had just told her. Then she asked,
“Which one wins?”
Grandmother answered,
“The one you feed wins.”
Adapted from a First Nations story about two wolves fighting within us.
Her grandmother looked at her, considering a moment before speaking.
“We all have an eagle and a serpent inside of us. The serpent brings thoughts and feelings of worthlessness, and the idea that it is other people that cause us to feel that way.”
She paused, and then continued.
“The eagle flies high, sees far,
and hopes to learn from the Great Spirit and to follow the Spirit’s way.”
“My granddaughter, life gets difficult during those times when the eagle and the serpent are locked in a necessary and mortal fight to the finish.”
The granddaughter pondered for a while what her grandmother had just told her. Then she asked,
“Which one wins?”
Grandmother answered,
“The one you feed wins.”
Adapted from a First Nations story about two wolves fighting within us.
A Faint Voice
"Each one of us human beings has two minds. One is totally ours, and it is like a faint voice that always brings us order, directness, purpose. The other mind is a foreign installation. It brings us conflict, self-assertion, doubts, hopelessness."
from "The Active Side of Infinity" by Carlos Castaneda
from "The Active Side of Infinity" by Carlos Castaneda
Our Deepest Fear
Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond Measure.
It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us.
There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other
people won't feel insecure around you. We were born
to make manifest that Glory of God
that is within us.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond Measure.
It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us.
There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other
people won't feel insecure around you. We were born
to make manifest that Glory of God
that is within us.
Survival of Respect
"I must somehow share this message with others: that we should treat ourselves, each other, and our world with respect. Mother Nature will not allow anything less than this mutual interconnection of respect to survive on earth," Amos said quietly.
from "The Seed Remembers" by Albert Mark Toops and Dana Gail Aston,
www.oldmp.com,
from "The Seed Remembers" by Albert Mark Toops and Dana Gail Aston,
www.oldmp.com,
The Voice of Knowledge
Once the tree of Knowledge is alive in our mind, we hear the fallen angel talking very loudly.
That voice never stops judging.
It tells us what is right and what is wrong, what is beautiful and what is ugly.
The storyteller is born inside our head, and survives inside our head because we feed it with our faith.
from "The Voice of Knowledge", a Toltec Wisdom Book by Miguel Ruiz
We Need to Love
"My friends, how desperately do we need to be loved and to love.
When Christ said that man does not live by bread alone, he spoke of a hunger.
This hunger was not the hunger of the body.
It was not the hunger for bread.
He spoke of a hunger that begins deep down in the very depths of our being.
He spoke of a need as vital as breath.
He spoke of our hunger for love."
When Christ said that man does not live by bread alone, he spoke of a hunger.
This hunger was not the hunger of the body.
It was not the hunger for bread.
He spoke of a hunger that begins deep down in the very depths of our being.
He spoke of a need as vital as breath.
He spoke of our hunger for love."
Chief Dan George
Everything on our Earth is alive
"In the Indian way, we are connected to that flower if we understand its spirit, the essence of its life." --Larry P. Aitken, CHIPPEWA Everything on our Earth is alive.
Every rock, every plant, every animal, every tree, every bird,every thought is alive. This is true because everything is made by the Great Spirit and the Great Spirit is alive. We need to slow our lives down each day and realize, consciously, that this is true. First we need to realize it, second, we need to acknowledge it, third, we need to appreciate it and, finally, we need to go on.
Great Spirit, let me see life through Your eyes.
Today let me be alive.
Every rock, every plant, every animal, every tree, every bird,every thought is alive. This is true because everything is made by the Great Spirit and the Great Spirit is alive. We need to slow our lives down each day and realize, consciously, that this is true. First we need to realize it, second, we need to acknowledge it, third, we need to appreciate it and, finally, we need to go on.
Great Spirit, let me see life through Your eyes.
Today let me be alive.
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