Why Bucky's "University" ?

2. This will go under the section: How my life changed as a results of "doing Bucky"?

So I had the audacity to entitle my blog Bucky's "University"? Must be giving some people the shivers, the creeps, goose bumps, whatever......ha ha.....(but at times I'll have to take the attitude "who cares"...........otherwise I'll never get around to doing anything)

Why so?

"Doing Bucky" put me back on the path to real learning. Learning not for the sake of the paper chase, but for the love of it. Most importantly I have discovered my own learning strategies and tactics to learn, which is what I intend to share here.

Before I do so, I have to take you back to my formal schooling. I find it hard to give any credit to my formal schooling though I was from a so-called "one of the highly reputed" school. I guess I didn't have the good fortune to encounter an inspiring teacher during my school days. I have to admit that my real education was after leaving school, through my own "self-education" more so through "doing Bucky." "Doing Bucky" meant studying Bucky through reading and re-reading his books, conducting Bucky workshops and putting myself out on a limb, doing Bucky Group projects, and writing this Bucky Blog which are quite outside my professional capabilities.

Let me illustrate:
I read a fair bit. However my reading is more than just reading. I actually study the books that I'm reading. Meaning? If I felt that a particular book is worthwhile reading, I read and study it many times over till I know it quite well that I could share about it. Some of his (Bucky's) writings are really daunting task to read, which requires tremendous effort to understand them. You know what I do?

If the book is really "heavy" and intimidating, which can put me off it, I literally take my book apart. I tear out the pages to read.

On Saturday Dec 8th 2007, I was sharing with my customer and friend Alan John, how I take my books apart to study it, which of course seemed babaric and uncivilized to Alan. Ha ha

Alan John said that's a terrible thing to do. You "murder and mutilate" your book. It's "criminal." Well, thank you, that's a compliment to me! Heh Heh.
See, I'd rather have a book that's "chewed" up and I've acquired the knowledge from it, than have a nice looking book sitting pretty on the bookshelf.

What made me come to such "uncivilized" tactics?

It all started with my most precious book, a Buckminster Fuller's book entitled "Critical Path". It was reputed to be a very challenging book to read, and as tried to lug the thick book around the binding began to split, (I gave up trying to glue it back together) I might as well take it apart, chunk it down to bite-size, for "chew-ability." So I tore out the pages, and carried the pages of the separated out book about with me wherever I go. I read them in moments when I'm doing something else, like riding on the MRT, waiting for the buses or trains, or walking in the streets, on even standing in queues in the bank, rather then finding the right moment to sit down at a fixed place or "proper" time to study or read. I don't think I'll ever get any reading done if I try to do so, there's always distractions or I'd get sleepy.

So what?
Well, I really cover so much reading or studying and picking up the knowledge that I'm seeking.

These days, as a further learning strategy, I'd even look out for opportunities to share what I've learnt, to practice what I've studied. How? I "teach" or rather share about what I've learnt in my Bucky workshops, my Bucky Gp session, with friends etc. Blogging is also an excellent way to share and learn.

Another strategy I've adopted in my studying was to see the authors whose books that I'm reading as being in "communion" with them. They have become my invisible "spiritual" companions, sharing their thoughts with me, at my beck and call, any moment, when I needed them, over and over again. First thing in the morning when I wake up, when I'm sitting on my "throne" heh heh, and the last thing at night by my bedside. They don't complain.

So I'm no longer just reading. I'm having a great time with Bucky, or Krishnamurti, or Anthony deMello, or Paulo Coelho, even Charles Handy, etc etc. When I "commune" with them, it meant I read at least 80% of the many books they've written.

Trust me if you really want to educate yourself, these strategies work. Certainly for me at least. You might want to do so.

We need to make learning an integral part of our life, because things around us are changing ever so rapidly. There's an explosion of knowledge.

Then came the realization, the Bucky Group which has been Meeting weekly since June 1994 is a University of the Universe, of Life

The thought popped into my mind: Why not have a Blog on the web as an extension, an Alternative "University?" A by-blog documentated Bucky's "University" where we can be who we are, no right or wrong, where mistakes are okay, there are no failures, because everything is subjective, where we can learn what we want to learn, at our own pace, for the joy of it, than have it dictated to us by some formal University out there who are more interested in making money (can't blame them). There are many possibilities.

That's what many people really need in life. As Bucky said, "We need to be returned to be the scholars we were meant to be." So? DO IT YOURSELF!!

The Bucky Blog ensued from the spontaneous informal activities of the Bucky Group. That's why I decided to entitle my blog, Bucky's "University" being that it is what a true University should be, where real learning occurs all the time and is informal.

Buckminster Fuller get full credit for re-starting me again, inspiring me to pursue my self-education, relentllessly.