All things are our relatives; what we do to everything, we do to ourselves. All is really One.
Interpretation
This quote emphasizes that all living beings are interconnected and that our actions towards others affect ourselves.
Black Elk's quote speaks to the deep interconnection of all life, suggesting that every action we take toward others ultimately impacts our own existence. By recognizing that we are all part of a larger whole, it challenges us to consider the ethical implications of our actions and to treat others with kindness and respect, as harming others can lead to harm for ourselves. It invites us to embrace a mindset of unity and compassion, reminding us that the well-being of one is tied to the well-being of all.
In practice
In a speech promoting environmental conservation, this quote can highlight our responsibility toward nature.
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; the visions and ceremonies only made me like a whole through which the power could come to the two-leggeds. 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.
The song and the drumming were like this: Behold, a sacred voice is calling you; All over the sky a sacred voice is calling.
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.
And as he spoke of understanding, I looked up and saw the rainbow leap with flames of many colors over me.
They told me I had been sick twelve days, lying like dead all the while, and that Whirlwind Chaser, who was Standing Bear's uncle and a medicine man, had brought me back to life.
Out of the Indian approach to life there came a great freedom, an intense and absorbing respect for life, enriching faith in a Supreme Power, and principles of truth, honesty, generosity, equity, and brotherhood as a guide to mundane relations.
β''Just think, never to be glad or disappointed. Never to like anyone and get cross at him and forgive him. Never to sleep or feel cold, never to make a mistake and have a stomach-ache and be cured from it, never to have a birthday party, drink beer, and have a bad conscience... How terrible.
The truth is outside of all fixed patterns.
It is not possible either to trick or escape the mind of Zeus.
I don't believe in an afterlife but I still fully expect to see my brother again.
God destines us for an end beyond the grasp of reason.
It is an axiom in my mind that our liberty can never be safe but in the hands of the people themselves, and that too of the people with a certain degree of instruction. This it is the business of the state to effect, and on a general plan.
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