Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Why respect service when there is reason to serve?


Service is different things to different people at different times
For different reasons

But whats the difference?

Why is there such a confusion of what is expected and what is worthy to give?

How do you see service if you are not actively serving anyone?

Not just in the manner of a D/s relationship
But in general as well

Doing things for the need of just doing something
Or doing something that has a purpose

let's check with the Sufi mystics:

He who does not know about service knows even less about mastership,
Tirmizi


Service is the performing of duty without either reluctance or delight.
The dutiful is neither an exploited slave not one who seeks reward.
People will get out of the performing of duty what they can get out of
it. If they put aside immediate enjoyment of duty and also immediate
reluctance to duty, they are in a position to benefit from the other
content of service. This it is which refines their perceptions.
Pahlawan-i-Zaif

The Sufi Law of Life requires:

Sincerity to God

Severity to self

Justice to all people

Service to elders

Kindness to the young
Generosity to the poor
Good counsel to friends
Forbearance with enemies
Indifference to fools
Respect to the learned,
Abdullah Ansari



Service to a Dog

It is related of Bayazid of Bastam that while on one of his many
pilgrimages to Mecca there was a drought. Bayazid came across a number
of people fighting over a pitiful amount of water. While this was going
on, Bayazid noticed a dog dying of thirst that looked up at him with sad
eyes and somehow seemed to say "You will gain great merit if you help
me, O Pilgrim!" Bayazid was fired with a sense of mission and began to
ask people "Will anyone buy the merit of hajj for a drink of water for
this dog?" Everyone ignored him so he offered the merit of two
pilgrimages, then three, four and so on until he was offering seventy
pilgrimages and at last someone agreed. But Bayazid fell under the spell
of his nafs at this point and became proud of his charitable act as he
placed the bowl of water down at the feet of the dog who looked up at
him with contempt and walked away without tasting a drop. Bayazid was
quick to learn his lesson and it seemed to him that he heard God speak
and God said "How many more times are you going to claim merit for one
thing or another when even a dog disdains your so-called service?" At
this point, Bayazid reached the station of Taubat - repentance. Until he
had reached that station, his Sabr or patience in persisting with asking
for water and his Khidmat or service to his fellow man were of nothing
and it only took a dog to teach him that because for someone with
Bayazid's capacity, anything can be a teacher and even service to a dog
can bring such a sincere seeker progress on The Path.

The Path is nothing other than service but it has to be service done in
the right way with the right intention. How formally this is worked out
is a matter for the individual.

Zoe

In the story of "service to a dog"
The moral is more about reason

What was the benefit of said service?

Sometimes we do things we THINK is worth being called service
Only to find the need not important
Or even needed

Yet some find just like the subject in the story the need to fight for the ability to serve
Without reason

What about Dominants?

Are they driven by the need to serve or be served?
Should it be a one way street?

Should it be more important for a submissive to be driven to serve their master
Yet
The Master is not driven to return the same degree of devotion to the submissive

Is service different for part time lifestylers who live regular lives elsewhere and seek Kinky play with a part time provider?

And what about the act it's self?

What if what is given is not as needed or important compared to what may be more needed and important to whom is being served?

Is sex considered service more than the actual act of something more non sexual?

And then there is the selfish need to serve

Selfless Service is a commonly used term to denote a service which is performed without any expectation of result or award for the person performing it. It is also sometimes used to denote a service performed with no apparent 'earthly' result, but which may accrue results in a spiritual or heavenly realm after death, although in the pure sense of the term that would not qualify as a strictly 'selfless' action.

Some sub missives seem to consider the need to serve for their own return more than the possibility of need by the Dominant or provider

Many complain about the demands of many Dominants of all types
They complain about giving too much or being taken for a fool

But what is the motivation to serve?

And is service a natural act or pre meditated?


Why serve if there is no reason other than the return for said service?

I know there are many who advertise the need for service
And others who advertise the need to serve

But why?
How?
When?

What kind of service are you driven to serve for or not?

In many D/s relationships
Many people consider what they do in a D/s relationship
To be driven more by S/M

How do you see it?

Service





respect

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