[1] The First, or Fundamental Rule is: "Do as you're told."

Only the limits of the submissive abrogate this rule. If any specific command is outside the submissive's limits it is outside her consent and therefore cannot be imposed upon her.

Built upon the Fundamental Rule are rules of the form: "In situation x, do y."

[2] The most general expression of this form is the Second Rule: "In every situation, please me."

This rule does not specify what behavior is wanted, only what result.

In obedience to this rule, the submissive yields to the silent actions of her Master, and strives to anticipate his desire and needs. The Second Rule extends her duties beyond the First and requires that the submissive be able to read her Master's character and act in accordance to the rule without further explicit commands. This rule forces the submissive to engage her personality in service to her Master, and it in fact forces her to shape her personality in union with his. This rule leads the slave into devotion for her Master.

[3] All other rules are specific to a situation or to classes of situations and they specify a course of behavior, either done within certain parameters or done in quite particular ways.

For example, consider the rule: "When I arrive home, greet me at the door." This rule does not specify how to greet, only that greeting must be done. The Second Rule implies it is to be done with the intention to please. The rule could of course be expanded to give details of how to greet, but even here one could wonder if blind obedience to a concrete rule is more important than the more general and invariable Second Rule. A perceptive, intuitive and devoted submissive will learn what it is her Master needs and she will have the insight to ignore a concrete rule in order to obey the more vital Second Rule. She will risk punishment in order to please.