Mitakuye Oyasin

"Mitakuye Oyasin" is a lakota prayer or thought we should all bring to our minds frequently. Its so simple. We all are connected, and what we do or say affects everyone on the planet. Notice the polar bear floating on a piece of ice that has melted and broken off from the polar ice cap, destroying a natural habitant. Mankind should respect the planet and all who are on it, the web of life if you will. When we say the words Mitakuye Oyasin with reverence, and a prayerful attitude, its like saying may I treat others and myself with respect and love. This includes everything alive on the planet, including the planet itself. Maybe do unto others isn't so far fetched, as some might think. I thought I would post this passage I found below for further consideration -thunderhands

~ DH Lawrence, Over the Rainbow

There is a wonderful word which I learned several years ago when I participated in a sweat lodge offered by Wallace Black Elk, a teacher, healer, and shaman of the Lakota Sioux tradition and Dr. William Lyon, an anthropologist formerly of Southern Oregon University. That word seemed to penetrate so deeply into my consciousness that even now I continue to marvel at its depth and relevance to my life and spiritual path.

That summer evening as we sat stuffed into a large teepee-shaped lodge, our bodies issuing buckets of sweat as "warriors" brought in one fiery, red stone after another, "Grandfather" Black Elk (spiritual descendant of the original Oglala Sioux holy man, Black Elk) referred to an honoring of all our relationships in our personal world. He asked each of us to consider Mitakyasi, a word from the Lakota language that literally means all my relations.

As steam splattered from water poured over the stones and the sacred pipe was passed around, Black Elk explained that the Lakota saw the universe as a living, breathing, entity in which we are all connected, not only flesh and blood creatures, but mountains and trees, oceans and rivers; all the inanimate world also. He even referred to the heated boulders as the "Stone People." The Lakota word to express this interrelated web of life in which we all exist and have our being is mitakyasi.

This powerful word (actually an anglicizing of the Lakota phrase Mitakuye Oyasin), for which there is no equivalent in English, is a recognition of the unity innate in the universe. Even more, it is a salutation, a prayer for all creation to commune in the harmony and balance that bridge the diversity of our lives.

I have come to understand that this Lakota word is a sort of touchstone for my feelings about myself and my relationships with the other beings in my life (human or otherwise). A touchstone was originally a black stone (somewhat like flint) used to test the purity of gold and silver by the streak left on the stone when scratched by the metal. Thus, it has come to mean by connotation a standard by which other things are measured.

Whenever mitakyasi comes to mind, I know that I am receiving a signal from my higher consciousness that I need to consider my relationships not only with friends, relatives and coworkers but also how I am feeling about the world outside my personal realm. As a person with a long history of exhibiting a tendency to cut myself off from people and live as a loner, I find that I must look more deeply at "all my relations."