Ming the Mechanic:
USM / Doing your Work
The NewsLog of Flemming Funch
 USM / Doing your Work2002-03-04 13:10
16 comments
pictureby Flemming Funch

Yesterday I went with my daugther to an Open House evening at University of Santa Monica, which she's thinking about going to. USM is a rather unusual university, as universities go. It is at the forefront of "soul-centered education" and gives master's degrees in spiritual psychology. Now, what is unique is that the program is a lot more like an ongoing personal development seminar than it is about full auditoriums with a teacher who lectures to you from the book and then you go to exams. This is essentially education in being a human, how to live from one's authentic self, how to access what one is really about, and how to deal with others in a similar fashion. This used to be just sort of a weird Southern California thing, but it is no longer as weird, as the world is increasingly recognizing the need for that kind of thing.

A term that is often used by people who've attended USM is "doing your work". That means, working on one's stuff, one's issues, taking responsibility for one's emotions and one's thoughts and one's life.

We all have issues of some kind, but the key point is what we do with them. One test is the phrase "I'm upset because _____". If we're habitually thinking and talking that way, and we defend that way of thinking, we're living in a victim consciousness, where our feelings always are somebody else's fault, and we let others control our feelings by what they do or don't do.

I'm so used to being around people in my life who're "doing their work" that I sometimes take it for granted, and then I occasionally get a rude awakening of realizing that not everybody, by far, is doing that. Most people in the world are still blaming their own mental and emotional state on somebody or something else.

I'm looking forward to the day when a program like University of Santa Monica's is an integral part of all education, where we'll learn personal and inter-personal skills, and where we're gently guided along to finding our own power and our own passion in life.


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16 comments

4 Mar 2002 @ 21:28 by peazritr : :: duh-huh, i thought i was here ::
& a big whew-hewwwwwwww because i KNOW i am. newciv is the kind of place where a person can do her work & if need be avoid all the professor- & degree-giving authority- types. that sort of thing -- the necessity to be approved by others before one does her own work & self approval -- seems less & less important to me in these days & times. i am comfortable here. i can bask in what i want to, dialogue about what i want to & have it all relate back to me getting down to the real knitty-gritty of working on my personal issues. what i have saved here on tuition, believe you me, i will pass forward! thanks a million!

university of santa monica sounds great but newciv sounds better. as a matter of intuition, why not get some accreditation happening around here?  

4 Mar 2002 @ 22:49 by shawa : Sounds good...
Sounds like what we do with Clonlara Homeschooling Programme (Michigan). Interpersonal communication and coming from one´s own self have been a priority for Butterflykiddo and Essence. Your comment about forgetting that other people sometimes are not there at all made me smile. I had to give a course on that to the girls also!...  

5 Mar 2002 @ 02:57 by jazzolog : Thank You
Perhaps the unfolding and blooming of the Me Generation will produce a lovely, fragrant garden. Always beautiful to learn, to be an eternal student---no matter what the professor does or how the drum is banged. May this post help me in that humility.  

5 Mar 2002 @ 15:30 by maxtobin : Thanks ming
Great posting, it is a bit of a shock when we meet with aspects of our self that remind us of the joy inherent in taking control of our own life and wellbeing, and 'doing our work'. I agree with peazritr on this and see that after school we find a graduated space to continue the growing and learning. Truly by exploring, the ME generation will discover the 'absolute' inherent in relationship. The foundation of a new civilization has to be self-empowered, self actualising individuals.  

5 Mar 2002 @ 17:57 by ming : The New Human
Various people have argued that it would be sort of meaningless to talk about creating a new civilization without focusing on creating a new civilization human. And I both agree - that it needs to be created from the bottom up, by self-actualized individuals. And at the same time I know that we can't really change others, so we can't depend on everybody's personal transformation before we get anywhere. So, we need to do both: lay out ways for people to transform themselves AND laying out society so that even if not everybody succeeds, it still works.  

6 Mar 2002 @ 01:34 by invictus : Wow
I look forward to that day too, Ming. A whole lot. And I like peazritr's idea of getting NCN acredited :). As soon as possible, if you please. I'm certainly working on doing my work; hugging my monsters, raiding my pain cave, whatever. And Shakti... you had to give your daughters a lesson that there are people in the world who DON'T "do their work"? Oh my. I've had to spend the last few years teaching myself the exact opposite. I'm not saying that in an "oh poor me" sort of way; just a good natured "oh my" sort of way.  

6 Mar 2002 @ 20:34 by peazritr : :: no doubt we have professors ::
& can rally together whatever else we need to kick off as an accredited distance learning experience. i have a business plan that never got funded but has shown up in product form all over the place since i wrote it that i would be honored to donate here. it deals more with the process of distance learning online than it does with accreditation but hey, no doubt that would be an easy task to wrap our hearts/heads around.  

6 Mar 2002 @ 22:39 by ming : Distance Learning
{member:vcool|Michael Abrams} is working on an online distance learning project, for those who want to get into it.  

11 Mar 2002 @ 20:16 by peazritr : :: soul centered 360 degree education ::
... now that takes commitment to attending to each student's development. (pardon me, ming, for addressing this here since you have sent me elsewhere already but i just need to document what's on my heart/mind at the moment.) & the way i am feeling/thinking about this now -- soul centered 360 degree education -- is hierarchic, & i am feeling/thinking that hierarchic education is not the approach. i am feeling/thinking like to attend each student's development, each instructor/teacher/guru's development must also be considered. i am therefore asking a question: to attend to the instructional needs of individuals, what does a distance learning or cyber university structure need to be to adapt to the flux of its staff & to its students? further to this little brainstorm notetaking, i am also asking: should soul centered 360 degree education be a free (no cost) thing? sorry for dropping these notes here, but i need somewhere to save them before they carry on like a well-endowed poem line 25 years forward & run out of my mind back to wait in the ether for rebirth.  

12 Mar 2002 @ 11:53 by vcool : Correcton
Thanks for the plug, Flemming, but actually, it's not the conventional "distance learning" project, but rather, a website supporting "lifelong, self-directed learning." I've partnered with {member:vrilclarin|vril}, an NCN member also in South Florida, and we're hopeful we can create something that will be worthwhile.

Michael Abrams  

12 Mar 2002 @ 13:20 by ming : Self-directed Learning
Thanks for the correction, Michael. Do you need or want other collaborators?  

16 Mar 2002 @ 17:08 by vcool : Self-Directed Learning
We're not looking for other collaborators right now--but it's entirely possible that we might at some point. ("The more, the merrier," is my attitude.)  

29 Mar 2002 @ 09:24 by dwilde1 : Self-Directed Learning
USM as you describe it sounds like a blend that's got a lot of Erhard/Landmark's Forum in it. It's still around, going strong: http://www.LandmarkEducation.com I find that I did my best work when I walked away from the Forum community and worked to source the same distinctions in life without the support structure. Didn't keep all of them, but my strongest foundation comes from the perspective I built for myself while doing so. Participating in their "work" and community has a whole new level of power and lightness for me now.  

20 Dec 2014 @ 02:46 by Jhon @190.73.120.42 : THqVVziKxDjihzEe
Ich meine auch nicht meckern srndeon selber machen! Und die gansen sachen hir solen ja auch nur zur anregung sein was man mit CS alles machen kann!weil jeder kennt das doch man mf6cht was tun und es klabt einfach nicht ? und dan verlirt man auch schnel die lust daran aber dang eure hilfe haben auch anfenger ein schnelles ergebnis und Freuen sich dan ! das solte jeden hir mal kla werden der das alles schon hinter sich hatt und die schachen aus den f f macht ! wir habe auch klein angefangen  

23 Dec 2014 @ 19:51 by Hitomi @41.78.6.254 : KWTszGvlIddUjUsqg
ey alter steht dein pc neben ein triebwerk oda was ?? omg wie laut is das teil den kauf dir mal ne waserskfchlung kann ich nur empfehlen :Dnaja spass bei seite super tut wusste zwar schon wie das funtzt aber trotzdem geilzu der person die nicht weis wie das programm heist das heist Adobe Photoshop CS 3 gibt es als test version bei adobe auf der seite oder bei ebay oda sonst da wo ffcr geld zu kaufen weil es ist wie immer Backsetine wollen se nicht  

21 Apr 2016 @ 02:13 by Elyza @188.143.232.32 : UNQZryVUsZ
That's really shwred! Good to see the logic set out so well.  

Other stories in
2012-05-03 00:04: An evolving path
2012-01-02 13:52: 2011 Accomplishments and 2012 Aims
2011-11-17 02:20: Your inner piece
2011-02-01 00:05: Slow Mo Flow
2011-01-22 18:40: Recognition
2010-08-23 00:36: Where's Ming?
2010-07-20 14:24: Getting other people to do stuff
2010-06-22 00:27: Inventory
2010-06-19 23:10: Conversations
2009-10-28 12:31: Then a miracle occurs


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