Slaves and Asceticism

I view the concept of BDSM slavery and the concept of religious asceticism as kissing cousins. They both focus on suffering as a means to transcendence, denial of the self and one's humanity, one's fleshly existence and free-will as a path to enlightenment. This is a great show of discipline yet also a great show of foolishness. The body is divine; the physical reality is a manifestation of the spiritual. To deny the human experience in its fullest capacity is to deny one's divinity. For this very reason I take each step, gratefully inhaling the air and thanking the Earth beneath my feet, the sun, stars, and moon above me, and the beautiful and holy living world around me. I AM a submissive, but the first and always most important master I serve is my Self. To usurp that priest-king is to spit in the face of my very existence. I am looking for my mate. He exists. He may be the Man I am involved with now. Time will tell.