It is hard to follow one great vision in this world of darkness and of many changing shadows. Among those men get lost.
BLACK ELKAnd as he spoke of understanding, I looked up and saw the rainbow leap with flames of many colors over me.
More Black Elk Quotes
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Hear me, four quarters of the world-a relative I am! Give me the strength to walk the soft earth, a relative to all that is! Give me the eyes to see and the strength to understand, that I may be like you. With your power only can I face the winds.
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I saw more than I can tell / And I understood more than I saw.
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Know the Power that is Peace.
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The center of the universe is everywhere.
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For instance, the coyote is sly, so is the Indian. The eagle is the same. That is why the Indian is always feathered up, he is a relative to the wings of the air.
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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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We should understand that the Great Spirit is also above all these things and peoples.
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All over the sky a sacred voice is calling your name.
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I cured with the power that came through me. Of course, it was not I who cured,it was the power from the Outer World.
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But I think I have done right to save the vision in this way, even though I may die sooner because I did it; for I know the meaning of the vision is wise and beautiful and good; and you can see that I am only a pitiful old man after all.
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Sometimes dreams are wiser than waking.
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Everything tries to be round.
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The hawk swoops down on its prey, so does the Indian. In his lament he is like an animal.
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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.
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Grandfather, Great Spirit, once more behold me on earth and lean to hear my feeble voice.
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Everything the Power of the World does is done in a circle.
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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.
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It is in the darkness of their eyes that men lose their way.
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The life of an Indian is like the wings of the air. That is why you notice the hawk knows how to get his prey. The Indian is like that.
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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.
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The song and the drumming were like this: Behold, a sacred voice is calling you; All over the sky a sacred voice is calling.
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Also, as I lay there thinking of my vision, I could see it all again and feel the meaning with a part of me like a strange power glowing in my body; but when the part of me that talks would try to make words for the meaning, it would be like fog and get away from me.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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The Universe is circles within circles, and everything is one circle, and all the circles are connected to each other.
BLACK ELK