' Oneness with the Universe '...

"The first peace, which is the most important, is that which comes within the souls of men when they realize their relationship, their oneness, with the universe and all its powers, and when they realize that at the center of the universe dwells Wakan-Tanka [the Great Mystery], and that this center is really everywhere, it is within each of us.

This is the real peace, and the others are but reflections of this.

The second peace is that which is made between two individuals, and the third is that which is made between two nations.

But above all you should understand that there can never be peace between nations until there is first known that true peace which, as I have often said, is within the souls of men."



-Black Elk
in Joseph Eppes Brown
The Sacred Pipe: Black Elk's Account of the Seven Rites of the Oglala Sioux
Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 1953, p. 115