The Importance of Focus - PART 1

As is customary I like to begin some articles with the definition of the word that is the subject matter for the article. Recently I made an error that I was unaware that I was making. Many years ago I had a slave who was with Me for almost six years. As it was then it remained so to this day that I never gave it much thought that the slave never had any difficulty remaining in, what today is being referred to as "slave space."

I can tell you that this has to be a modern-day phenomenon. I had never heard of such a thing during My tenure as a learning Master during the early 1980's through to the late 1990's. I had never heard a Master or a slave make any reference to a slave specifically needing something that would redirect a slaves own view of itself as a slave. My slave of six years was never not in slave space. At least I was never privy to the slave ever mentioning anything like that. I never had to be concerned with the slave ever wavering from his position in relation to Me. There was never any instance in all the time that I had that slave that it ever became eivdent that it needed some direection from Me in order to "remain" or be "re-focused" in any sort of head space at all. The slave knew and accepted that it was a slave...end of story.

My present slave kept telling Me that he needed some focus or that its focus needed to be realigned. This concept was foreign to Me. However, the lesson I learned from this was that it became obvious that I was taking it for granted that any person claiming to be a slave simply accepted that fact, hands-down. My salve is telling Me that it needed Me to realign it into "slave heaadspace". After all, I thought to Myself, I don't need to be realigned. I know who and what I am. So this perplexed Me to the point of wondering if the slave was using this concept of "head-space" as an excuse for something else. For what I could not imagine.

So, when I am perplexed by something, anything, My habit is to stop and examine what I actually believe and why. So to get a firm foothold toward understanding this, I began by refreshing My understanding of the word focus.

focus: to cause to be concentrated; to concentrate on a thing or a thought; to bring something into focus; to concentrate attention or effort on something.

The definition I found did not satisfy My need for understanding what a slave means by focusing on being a slave or focusing on its head space as a slave. So I dug a little deeper and found the word "center" as a synonym for the word focus.

center: focal point, heart, hub, nerve center, polestar, seat; center of attraction (or interest), focus of attention

Ah, okay now I was getting warmer: The center of or focus of one's attention. Still I resisted wanting to believe that a slave needed to focus its attention on being a slave. It was sort of like a goldfish having to be reminded it was a goldfish. After all, doesn't the slave know its a slave? Doesn't the fact that the slave is in shackles all day long and have to ask to use the bathroom enough to remind it that it is a slave? I don't need anyone to remind Me that I am a Master. So this whole idea that a slave needed to have its attention refocused on its identity; it was sort of blowing My mind.

I wrestled with this for a while. Why should a slave need to re-focus? Does that mean that the slave is not very solid in its mind what and who it is? Does this need represent some weakness in the slave? After all, I never had this problem with slave X of six years. BINGO ! There it was, the answer, right before My eyes. I was assuming something about My current slave based on the actions of a former slave. It did not dawn on Me until I stopped and thought about what I was thinking about!

I have made it a point in many of the articles I have written that slaves are not manufactured in some factory somewhere. I make it a point to say that many Masters today have this idea that all slaves are the same. Yet, here I was doing the very same thing that I was warning other Masters not to do. Proof positive that not all slaves are the same. So upon thinking on it more deeply I realized that some slaves may need, from time to time, and maybe even more than that, to have their Master re-align their focul point. Of course this epiphany does not completely wipe away some of the questions I posed earlier in this article.

What could be the reason that a slave would require this? I kept asking Myself this question. It was not enough for Me to simply wonder why a slave would require some realignment or to know that some slaves may in fact need a Master to exercise a slave in that manner. No. There had to be a root cause for the reason why some slaves need this exercise. Then it hit Me. Of course, and again the answers were right in front of Me. My slave of six years was owned by two previous Masters and had a lot of experience. That slave was also older than most of the slaves that I have been considering, including the slave I now own. The difference is something that I have written about at great length here.

I asked Myself; "What one thing would cause a slave to lose its focus of being a slave or serving his Master in confidence?" What one thing; what one human trait can usually be cited and accused of being the culprit of robbing one of the confidence that one has in oneself? EGO !

The lesson I learned is that a Master can never make the assumption that His slave has confidence steady as a piece of granite. A slave who has an active ego, no matter how good that slave appears to be at controlling its ego; a Master can not know if the slave's own ego is working against itself. I have wracked My brain and there can be no other explanation.

Okay so the slave knows its a slave; he gets a A+ for that. The slave has no problems with seeing itself as a slave and living its life as a slave. So what is the problem then? The problem is the slaves own level of confidence. Sure a slave can have confidence in its abilities and that is not what I am refering to here. But what happens during the time that the slave's ego is busy working on erroding the slave's focus. It could be happening in a million different ways. The ego has one design and one focus only, I don't care if we are talking about a Master or a slave. The ego will do anything to prevent itself from being muzzled, controlled, quieted...whatever label you wish to use, they all apply.

While a slave, particularly a new slave, is working to quash or silence his ego with regard to its outward desires and focusing only on those things that its Master wants, the slave may inadvertently simply forget about itself. Now this may seem like a dichotomy because a slave is not supposed to think about itself...right? However, there is a far more subtle thing happening here. While the slave is working diligently to focus on the Master his own ego is quietly working against the slave. In some ways I wonder if this ia part and parcel of the sign of the times.

Now this may seem a bit over-the-top but there is, in all of us, the existence of a more lower-tract or lower based ego that few people ever talk about. It is the part of the ego that is refered to as the primitive ego. To put it simply, the primitive ego is an unconscious part of the ego that drives the self; impatiently wanting something; a kind of craving for "more", a basic never-ending sense of entitlement, and the feeling that what "we" want is assumed to be more important than what "others" might want, are just a few examples of our self-focused primitive ego; a normal part of every one of us. Another good example is impatience. Our primitive ego often feels like we should have the right to get what we want when we want it. I cannot stress enough that this is not an easily recognizeable ego mechanism to identify. It works based on what we have already learned through life's lessons and we are completely unaware of it most of the time.

Taming our primitive ego requires that we grow in self-awareness and consciously strengthen our adult observing ego. Our observing ego is the part of our psyche that can awaken and learn to intentionally pay attention to our thoughts, beliefs, emotions, behaviors, and the moment-to-moment reality of our world. It is not simply good enough to say that we pay attention to our thoughts. When a stream of thought enters our conscious mind we must try and examine what it is that generated the thought in the fist place...try and get to the root cause of the thought. This is not something that is easily done. It takes practice and it takes patience.

Running the risk of sounding like so many counselors and psychologists; our primitive ego thoughts and behaviors are common to all humans, but when our primitive childhood consciousness interferes with our ability as matured adults to manifest and sustain compassion it becomes a significant problem. But why compassion? What does compassion have to do with any of this or the way a slave sees his Master?

The primitive ego is developed during childhood and is carried with us throughout our adult life. Problems that arise in adulthood that are closely linked with the development of the childs ego can become a big problem for some slaves as well as some Masters. More than anyone in the Master/slave relationship the slave must have developed a certain level of compassion for its Master. As a rule, Masters do not share everything with their slaves with regard to finances or details about His business, etc. So a slave must rely on things like his instinct, his intuition and the things that the slave has learned about the Master. But, what does this have to do with primitive ego and the slave needing focusing exercises?

The ability to set our primitive ego aside so-as-to manifest and sustain true compassion for one's Master requires a deep level of personal self-knowledge. We have to know our self, especially our primitive ego beliefs and certainties, well enough to set them aside; to see around them, not through them. The real task or exercise for the slave is to to learn to be "empty" of the certainty of its primitive ego beliefs, and willing to adopt an attitude of "not-knowing" when the Master disagrees with a slave; a willingness to truly look for the truth in the Master's position or the ability to make the Master's truth the slave's truth.

Probably, I think, the most effective path to growth in self-awareness is some form of spiritual practice of actually visualizing the giving of compassion to your Master. Whenever a slave intentionally attempts to offer compassion to its Master, the slave's observing ego has an excellent opportunity to pay attention to the unconscious primitive ego material that tries to get in the way. In other words, the most effective path to authentic growth and focus is the ability to manifest true compassion for one's Master becuse it simply represents the slave's growth in self-awareness that comes from a sort of spiritual practice for the slave to intentionally offer compassion to its Master.

I am not stating that this is the end-all cure for a slave who appears to be weak in its focus. If a slave cannot find answers within himself becuase he is stuck in the mire of his own primitive ego then what? How can You as the Master help? Well, if the slave is worth it...if You believe that the slave is worth Your effort then it is the Master's responsibility to get the slave over that hump. How I handled it was to assign a schedule to My slave where he was to stop whatever it was doing at a certain time to kneel somewhere quiet and recite a type of mantra. I devised two mantras, one for the morning and one for the afternoon. Both the mantras are to be said at night before the slave is chained to its quarters. I went a little further and told the slave that it was to have no more music while doing its chores, that for a period of time the slave will focus on reciting the mantras in its head while doing its chores.

Now, I am not saying that this will work with every slave. You may have to devise Your own method for assisting the slave to, as-they-say, "Stay in slave space." There is a part of Me that wants to just say, "What the fuck is this, that a slave needs to be reminded it is a slave?" But, that is not what it is all about. The world has installed every sort of fantasy, want and desire into the slave. There is NO guarantee that a slave is going to come to You completely devoid of any baggage. Just because You know who and what You are and don't need anyone to remind You to remain in Master head-space, You cannot assume that is true about slaves. Just as I did, You may have to get used to the fact that some slaves do not have the mental ability to be that disciplined or have the ability to control their own thoughts. And as far as I know there is no slave-R-Us store or a place on the Internet where a Master can simply design the slave of His dreams. In most instances I think that You have to accept the fact that You will have to make the slave You want. That may entail having to develop and design exercises or methods that will aid the slave to not fall out of slave-mode. I guess that is why slaves are slaves and Masters are Masters.

Compassion for one's Master requires a radical acceptance of reality sometimes or "what is" without the slave's primitive ego attempting to judge it. Compassion requires taming the primitive ego of our unconscious inner-child and removing it from the center of our consciousness. True compassion means that the Master can look into His slave's eyes and see only understanding in the form of compassion mirrored back. It is easy to recognize a slave that is having difficulty with controlling its own primitive ego. How? The slave will begin to pick apart the things a Master says and does. The slave may not say anything immediately but trust Me it will come to a head at some point. As a Master know that the slave can hardly help itself out of this quagmire. After all, the slave has spent most of his time thinking about what the Master wants him to do. A slave's primitive ego can get triggered by almost anything. However, it is not actually important for a Master to know the slave's triggers becuase chances are the slave does not know them himself. You, as the Master, must recognize the signs. A slave may appear to be unhappy, but it states that it is not. Yet, You sense that someting is not balanced.

A slave's compassion is not a "philosophy" that they need to embrace. Compassion is not a nice "religious" or "spiritual" goal that the slave "should" work on. Compassion must come from the slave's heart, not the salve's head and it is not something that can be forced by the Master. In a sense the Master earns the slave's compassion, but it is not a conscious effort. It just happens.

A slave's compassion for his Master should never be out of pity or sympathy. Pity and sympathy are only offered to persons we feel are beneath us; to those persons we feel are victims or powerless. When we offer pity and sympathy we are often secretly thankful that the person's problems are not our own. That is definitely the wrong way for a slave to visualize his Master.

A slave's compassion requires empathy; when a slave is aware of a Master's pain or the problems that his Master may be experiencing the slave must be able to focus on the fact that his Master takes care of the slave and that the Master has freed the slave from the daily grind and cares that the rest of the world has. The slave needs to focus on the fact that his Master has taken the slave away from all of the general cares that the slave would have to be facing if he did not have a Master. The true compassion of a slave says that he will be there with his Master and share the Master's cares in empathy by supporting the Master, even if it sometimes means the slave merely stays out of his Master's way. A slave should always remind itself that he will not distance himslef or his humanness from his Master. Compassion says that given time, the slave will have faith that his own humanness will help a Master in some way and also help his Master by easing his Master's suffering that He may be experiencing.

The most important reason for a slave to learn to practice compassion toward his Master is the sobering reality that the slave cannot survive alone. your Master is an integral part of its slave's life. A slave depends on his Master for the slave's very survival and well-being. Only compassion has the ability to effectively bring harmony, order, cooperation, systemic thinking, and the diversity that marks the Master/slave life. Only compassion has the ability to teach a slave to focus. Only compassion is life-friendly.

The isolation that a slave's (and a Master's) primitive ego encourages through its narcissistic self-focus, and the violence and conflict that it creates through black-and-white judgments, inexorably drives a slave into deeper isolation from his Master; a process that destroys both systemic thinking and the ability to work cooperatively with ones' Master. Because the primitive ego can only sustain a focus on its own beliefs and truths, it is more often than not indifferent and sometimes hostile to the beliefs and truths of ones' Master. The primitive ego is not life friendly.

In the military a man moves up in rank based on his achievements and his experience. A Master is no different. So this is a warning to all the slaves out there; Do not assume that your Master is all that...meaning that He is going to be all that you think He is or should be. If you want a Master that is experienced then you may as well face it that you are likely to find succes with a Master that is older and who has had a few years of experience under his belt. The same may not hold true for slaves. Either way, if the slave or the Master has a number of years of experience do not make the mistake of thinking that everything you ever wanted is all wrapped up nice and tidy in a little package just waiting for you to open and enjoy. There are many factors involved in a successful Master/slave relationship. But above all...pay attention to the intention of your thoughts and don't be so quick to jump to conclusions. That advice goes for both Master and slave.

So, for a Master, pay attention to the slave's demeanor and habits. If You even suspect that a slave is in need of a little refocusing or a little nudge (especially if it is an inexperienced slave) then what is it to You to spend a little time creating an exercise or a method for helping the slave through some of its rough spots. And slave, pay attention to its thoughts. While it may be important for it to figure out where the thoughts are coming from, it is by far more important that it focus on how fortunate it is to have a Master looking out for its best interests. Don't be so quick to judge the Master based on something that stems from its' primitive ego. Focus on being different; focus on having a little compassion for the Master. Try and focus on having empathy for the Master. A good Master is very difficult to come by in these electronic times of the Internet. So, if it has found a decent Master, don't focus on the minor things demanded by its primitive ego. Focus on paying attention to the good things it has. For example, think of all the slaves out in the world who may be struggling to find a decent Master that will help them and train them and give them the satisfaction of serving a good Master. Take hold of the collar around its neck and remember the promises it made when that collar was placed around its neck. And above all, think well.

The Importance of Focus - PART 2

I am beginning to formulate an idea that the so-called slave headspace issue may have something to do with a much more fundamental facet of the duality that exists between a Master and a slave. What I mean by "duality" with regard to this subject is the differences between how a Master views His position and a slave views its position. Obviously they cannot be the same. As regards Myself, I do not ever think about slipping in and out of Master head space. I am not sure I would even know how to describe Master headspace. I simply am what I am. However, I am forming the opinion that slave headspace is really more about self-preservation, which as I mention above in Part 1 is the realm of the primitive ego. As a Master I do not really have to think about My primitive ego and what affect it has on My life or the life of My slave. As a Master I can freely exercise My primitive ego and cannot recognize a feeling of self-preservation as a slave might.

When a Master is first paired with a slave, whether He has slsaves or has had slaves in the past, the Master's initial focus is the performance of the slave.
Work in Progress 01.04.2012