Living in a sacred manner

Black Elk uses the term "walking in a sacred manner" and says "Nothing can live well except in a manner that is suited to the way the sacred Power of the World lives and moves."

This is pretty powerful stuff. I call it "living in a sacred manner." By this I mean living deliberately, like Thoreau, and being aware and respectful of the earth and the other beings around you.

Tinker has taught me that you do indeed reap what you sow. If I treat him with consideration, then in return he will be gentle with me. If I am all wrapped up in my own world and treat him as a demanding interruption, then he will in return be rough and short-tempered with me. He is like a mirror, or instant karma and can be either a closed book if I don't treat him with respect, or a great friend, confidant and teacher if I open myself to him by treating him respectfully. I have to believe that this applies to all of the natural world around me. So my life can either be full of weeds, or flowers, depending on how I define these other beings, but I think the Power of the World believes in biodiversity, not human supremacy. So we humans can be either like a cancer on the earth or as fellow travellers with all of the other beings.

AS to those other than whom we might normally classify as being "living," there are those of the school of thought who believe that when one gets down to the sub-atomic level of matter, that the particles are diffused in pure consciousness, and that material objects or beings are actually the crystallization of individual thoughts or ideas. If this is indeed the case then I can see how a shaman might cure someone of a disease by being able to alter his consciousness so that he can go into this realm and tinker with the underlying structure. I suppose this would also encompass true faith healing.