WELCOME |
The BORN SLAVES, in the pursuit of their destiny, have discovered what many throughout history have discovered. The BORN slaves know that there is no success in this life unless it facilitates and stimulates growth and achievement in the lives of everyone else. There is no such thing as a personal, fulfilling destiny that doesn't include everyone else. A destiny cannot be selfish.
Nothing we experience has spiritual benefit unless it changes our lives. There is no benefit to changing our lives unless it allows us to be more efficient at identifying and implementing the tasks we were created to perform. Knowledge isn't spiritual growth. It's what's in our hearts, that we feel through our bodies, that guides our actions in all that matters.
For centuries, entire orders of Catholic and Buddhist priests have used the energy of an SM device to empower their spiritual growth. There is nothing new under the sun, and there is nothing new about using physical stimulation to suspend the mental world long enough to develop new perspective, and growth.
BORN SLAVES experience the first level of their spiritual growth, referred to as BIRTH, from feeling the hot, burning fire of obedience inside the heart. The consistency of this feeling, the universality of its expression through spiritual practices all over the world, and all over time prompted us to offer the first Path of the Obedient Heart. Originally, it was thought only to be a method of identifying those who were created and destined to be slave. It became evident very quickly that the experience of physical power is also beneficial for others who are open to physical experiences.
The Path of the Obedient Heart was born from the success of sharing the experience of BORN SLAVERY with others. It has been found to be effective with those who:
1. Hold a sense of adventure in their hearts,
2. Seek more fulfillment from their lives than is currently being experienced,
3. Can't find other methods that are as effective at breaking the spiritual ceiling against which they find themselves, and
4. Simply want another alternative experience to add to their already diverse collection.
From a review of what works and what doesn't work, and an examination of when it works, it has become clear that we all go through a spiritual growth cycle that is similar to our physical cycle. Just as we have a physical childhood, then adolescence, and finally reach adulthood, we also have a spiritual childhood, adolescence, and adulthood.
Our spiritual age has nothing to do with our physical age. And, just as growth doesn't end with physical adulthood, neither does spiritual growth end once we find our spiritual adulthood.
We all like to feel as though we have already reached a place of spiritual enlightenment. We like to pretend that what we know has qualified us for that lofty spiritual place. As it has been expressed by the spiritual leaders in India, "Until we can materialize and de-materialize at will, there is no reason to even consider that we have reached enlightenment." We can progressively become more and more enlightened, but few, if any, have achieved a place of graduation on which we can rest and depend on our laurels for the rest of our lives.
Most of us experience that the more enlightened we become, the more we know we still have yet to experience and to learn to be as effective as we were created to be. Just as we have heard those who have achieved their P.H.D's express that they finally know how little they know about their subject, we will only continue to grow in the knowledge that we know less and less about the subject of our spirituality.
Fortunately, what we do each moment has nothing to do with what we know about spirituality. It has to do with the obedience in our heart. When we feel that strongly enough, we will allow what should happen into our lives. When we don't feel obedient enough, we hold back, put limitations on our life and on our experiences. So long as we hold back, we are not living in the moment and are still, therefore, spiritually adolescent.
The transition from spiritual adolescence to the first level of spiritual adulthood is a time of letting go of all attachments. So long as we defend anything we're attached to, especially the good things we're attached to, like health, we are still spiritually adolescent. We don't have to wish bad health on ourselves to release our attachment to good health. That's an easy example. The challenges lie in attachments that are deeper and less expressed that one so generally recognized as health.
For BORN SLAVES, what marks the beginning qualification for slave development is their willingness to begin detaching, without understanding why. Until they have reached that point, the transition cannot begin. The transition ends with BIRTH. Then, spiritual adulthood begins, life changes more rapidly than it ever has, and we understand less than we have ever understood.
For all men and women, whether slave or not, transition cannot begin until there is a willingness to let go of our attachments. Until there is some reason to do so, we won't begin. We won't expose ourselves to anything we can't understand nor control. We have to feel some motivation for growing. It's too easy to stay we are, controlling what we think we control, and taking credit for everything we think we can take credit for.
When we are ready, The Path of the Obedient Heart is one of the avenues of exposing ourselves to who we are directly. Circumventing the mental control by which we feel normally forced to live, we discover a spiritual place inside that can't be explained through physics, nor through psychiatry, nor by any physical method. The transition from being the image we have constructed of ourselves, to being who we really are can't be explained by science because it's not science.
If one of our attachments is to believing there is no spiritual world, then we are locked in position, we can never leave the success of spiritual adolescence.
Spiritual adolescence feels good. There is a lot of freedom there. Usually, there is some degree of respect and recognition from our peers and family at that place. Until we feel a drive to achieve something more, leave what we have now, and to fill the holes or absences in our lives, there is no reason and no potential for going any further.
When we do discover we want something more in our lives, the Path of the Obedient Heart offers several options.
First, Path I is now offered in many communities around the country. It is attended by those who are active in spiritual growth, and by those who are considering doing so. It is a blending of men and women all along the spiritual developmental path. Those who have been where we are yet to travel can explain where we are, examine the characteristics of our current location, and confirm what we already expect about ourselves.
From knowing where we are, alternative methods can be offered as the next step, appropriate to where each is currently. The alternatives are offered from a variety of Path travelers, and from a wealth of experiences. When a recommendation resonates with us, we have the option of taking action. A list of referrals is offered where there is interest.
Path II is ONE of the alternatives available to us. Those who are drawn, or connect, or feel a resonance with the kind of physical activity that is offered can explore. Since experience is where we actually learn what we need to do with our lives, there can be no wrong experience. It will confirm either where we should be headed or where we shouldn't be headed. Either piece of information is equally valuable.
Those who find the intense physical experience of flogging does open their heart to the feeling the obedience it needs to find direction can then venture on to an Advanced Path where the spirit is allowed to play in ever-expanding, creative ways.
Everyone is always welcome at Path I. Anyone who understands what happens at Path II and is interested is welcome there. When what has been learned tells us that we want more, Advanced Paths is where to find more.
None of these adventures preclude any other. In fact, supportive, or related experiences might be recommended to facilitate your growth. The truth cannot be threatened. Since spiritual development is our own small experience of this big thing called "truth", if what we find is true, it will always be true and be true in all circumstances and situations. If not true, it never was true, so finding out it wasn't true is a valuable pursuit.
The ultimate objective in life is to have moral certainty, in every moment whenever anything significant is in front of us. That is all any of us can hope for. That certainty extracts the price of our development. It demands our integrity and honesty. It requires all of our talent. There is nothing left over, and there is no reserve on which to rest or draw. Our life requires our whole life, and every moment of it.
Living isn't something we do on the side. Living is what we do. Everyone is welcome and invited to join the BORN SLAVES and me along our own journey of continuing development. No place along the path is any better than any other. No place is more admirable than another. No place is more difficult than another. What looks "right" and what looks "wrong" will be known only when we look back. What is "good" or what is "bad" will only be known to us through hind sight. In the present, it is all the same, it is another of life's many experiences.
The Path of the Obedient Heart is our way to give back to the community what we feel grateful for having received. It is a way to allow others to do the same. It is a way for all of us to mutually benefit from each other, instead of always looking outside for answers.
Everyone is welcome. Everyone is invited. Everyone is exactly where they should be right now. Everyone who is ready to further their spiritual development knows they are.
May our Paths cross soon!
Love,
SlaveMaster, BORN SLAVES, and the Path Adventurers