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- Each
morning upon rising, and each evening before sleeping,
give thanks for the life within you and for all life,
for the good things the Creator has given you and for
the opportunity to grow a little more each day. Consider
your thoughts and actions of the past day and seek for
the courage and strengthto be a better person. Seek
for the things that will benefit others (everyone).
- Respect. Respect means "To
feel or show honor or esteem for someone or something;
to consider the well being of, or to treat someone or
somethin with deference or courtesy". Showing respect
is a basic law of life.
a. Treat every person from
the tiniest child to the oldest elder with respect at
all times.
b. Special respect should
be given to Elders, Parents, Teachers, and Community
Leaders.
c. No person should be
made to feel "put down" by you; avoid hurting
other hearts as you would avoid a deadly poison.
d. Touch nothing that belongs
to someone else (especially Sacred Objects) without
permission, or an understanding between you.
e. Respect the privacy
of every person, never intrude on a person's quiet moment
or personal space.
f. Never walk between people
that are conversing.
g. Never interrupt people
who are conversing.
h. Speak in a soft voice,
especially when you are in the presence of Elders, strangers
or others to whom special respect is due.
i. Do not speak unless
invited to do so at gatherings where Elders are present
(except to ask what is expected of you, should you be
in doubt).
j. Never speak about others
in a negative way, whether they are present or not.
k. Treat the earth and
all of her aspects as your mother. Show deep respect
for the mineral world, the plant world, and the animal
world. Do nothing to pollute our Mother, rise up with
wisdom to defend her.
l. Show deep respect for
the beliefs and religion of others.
m. Listen with courtesy
to what others say, even if you feel that what they
are saying is worthless. Listen with your heart.
n. Respect the wisdom of
the people in council. Once you give an idea to a council
meeting it no longer belongs to you. It belongs to the
people. Respect demands that you listen intently to
the ideas of others in council and that you do not insist
that your idea prevail. Indeed you should freely support
the ideas of others if they are true and good, even
if those ideas ideas are quite different from the ones
you have contributed. The clash of ideas brings forth
the Spark of Truth.
- Once a council has decided something
in unity, respect demands that no one speak secretly
against what has been decided. If the council has made
an error, that error will become apparent to everyone
in its own time.
- Be truthful at all times, and
under all conditions.
- Always treat your guests with
honor and consideration. Give of your best food, your
best blankets, the best part of your house, and your
best service to your guests.
- The hurt of one is the hurt
of all, the honor of one is the honor of all.
- Receive strangers and outsiders
with a loving heart and as members of the human family.
- All the races and tribes in
the world are like the different colored flowers of
one meadow. All are beautiful. As children of the Creator
they must all be respected.
- To serve others, to be of some
use to family, community, nation, and the world is one
of the main purposes for which human beings have been
created. Do not fill yourself with your own affairs
and forget your most important talks. True happiness
comes only to those who dedicate their lives to the
service of others.
- Observe moderation and balance
in all things.
- Know those things that lead
to your well-being, and those things that lead to your
destruction.
- Listen to and follow the guidance
given to your heart. Expect guidance to come in many
forms; in prayer, in dreams, in times of quiet solitude,
and in the words and deeds of wise Elders and friends.
Authorship:
Original version printed in 1982 in the book,"The
Sacred Tree" by the Four
Worlds Development Project .
Adapted and reprinted in the "Inter-Tribal Times"
October 1994. The adapted version is presented here.
Stationery
by Silverhawk's Creations
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