What Can We Learn from Standing Rock? Part 3: Every Person Is Important and Useful

From the Elders at Standing Rock, the Third Principle: “Every Person is Important and Useful. There is much to be done. Whether you pick up garbage or write a blog, cut wood, scrub pots, or go out on a direct action, every act you do is a prayer and all acts are sacred. In this place there is no hierarchy in the realm of work.”

Whoa. Let me repeat that last line: In this place there is no hierarchy in the realm of work. 

Just stop for a moment and take in these words. No hierarchy in the realm of work. 

This is a concept completely foreign—and opposite—the western world of work. Wait…scrubbing pots is as important as sitting in prayer or taking rubber bullets on the front line? What?

I witnessed this principle in action countless times at Standing Rock. There was…a flow. When a need was identified, inevitably someone would step forward and say "I can to do that…" There was no hierarchy, there was only the moment and what was needed in that moment. Actually, I had no idea what the people I encountered "did" in the outside world. Each person's contribution was important, timely. There was a willingness to step in, over and over again. 

Hierarchy is inexorably woven into our western minds and ways of being. The CEO is far, far more important than the executive assistant, right? And yet…how would the CEO function without that assistant? How would our world function without teachers, or nurses, or garbage collectors, or dish washers? There is much to be done, and each person has a role to play in supporting the whole.

How did we get so out of balance? To the point where the CEO earns more money in one day than his or her employees make in a year? Where decisions are made from the top down, often without full consideration of impact on the whole?

How can we start to build balance into our western world? To view each person as important, each action or function as an essential part of the whole of our community/world?

An image comes to mind, of a sphere made up of facets, like a gemstone. Each facet shines and reflects light brilliantly, no one facet more brilliant than another. Together, they create beauty. Wholeness. Function. What if we learned to live from this place of community, of wholeness, of valuing the contributions of every person as important and useful?

And then, there's the other half of the third principle: every act you do is a prayer and all acts are sacred. In a prayer camp, where the commitment is to hold sacred energy in your thoughts, words, and actions, it’s easy to step into the energy of this principle. There are reminders all around; when one begins to falter a bit, another steps up in full prayer and the energy shifts.

It isn’t always perfect at Standing Rock. There have been times when actions were taken, especially on the front lines, which were not in alignment with the prayer of the elders, not sanctioned by the chiefs, and not centered in prayer and the sacred. There were moments I saw on video that involved name calling, rock throwing, taunting of officers on the other side of the front line.

And yet, prayer was also present. Gentle corrections were made…sometimes fierce corrections were made. There are many who are committed to a prayerful demonstration, and these people hold a front line of their own. The fact that the demonstrations have remained as peaceful as they have, in spite of incredible tension and excessive push-back on the front line, is remarkable. Prayer and the sacred have prevailed.

This concept hearkens back to the second principle, that of basing our action in prayer and ceremony. When we act from a place of prayer, holding the sacred in our hearts, we move in the world of ceremony—no matter what we’re doing. We establish a link with the energy bank of our prayer, and we walk it forward into the world. And there is no hierarchy in prayer…each thought, each word, each action is equally whole and holy.

We need each other to hold the line for the sacred. To remind each other, even if it’s simply by standing by in your centered, prayer-based self. To hold the line for the sacred, for all that is life affirming. To gently—and sometimes, fiercely—hold the line for the whole. To value the contributions of each and every person we encounter.

This is a particular challenge in our polarized country at this time. I invite you to play with this principle as you move in the world. To hold the knowing that each person's contributions are important to the greater whole, to the evolution of human consciousness. This is no small challenge...see how big you can get, how open your heart can become, how strong your pillar of prayer-energy can grow. 

With respect,

Zardoya