Author Archives: mbakis

Who am I?

My previous “Calling a Spade a Spade” post is about telling the truth– something our world desperately needs at this exact moment in time. Each of us has to talk about the truth, within our seemingly small and insignificant spheres of life, however uncomfortable or however much it may threaten our reputations.  Our integrity andContinueContinue reading “Who am I?”

More Tough Love, Less Coddling

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snqXOvnHzcQ&feature=youtu.be   The kids in the “Everyone gets a trophy” generation are in college now and acting crazy at the extreme ends of the political spectrum (there’s a middle– we just don’t hear about them because they are individuals rather than extreme identity groups and they’re probably attending to the business of their lives insteadContinueContinue reading “More Tough Love, Less Coddling”

Calling a Spade a Spade

“To Err is human; to forgive, divine”—Alexander Pope Softening, or “pussification,” as the late, great comedian George Carlin defined it, is destroying the integrity of authentic learning. When people fuck with the integrity of the learning process, when they weaken it and make it soft, it corrupts individuals and society far more than we knowContinueContinue reading “Calling a Spade a Spade”

Podcast: Meet World Traveling Yoga Teacher, Changu Changezi

003: Podcast with Changu Changezi Changu Changezi is an ordinary guy with an inspiring story about learning and landscapes. He is a traveling Bikram yoga teacher who lives his life with integrity, authenticity, and an unshakeable sense of self. He has been traveling the world teaching Bikram yoga for the past four years, approaching learningContinueContinue reading “Podcast: Meet World Traveling Yoga Teacher, Changu Changezi”

Podcast: Grace Tempany, Multi-potentialite and teacher-extraordinaire

Grace and I discuss our desire to begin a conversation about teaching as moral and teaching with courage and integrity. We discuss the need for more authentic forms of teaching and learning in school, so that kids can embark on their individual journeys toward the self rather than just trying to find the right answerContinueContinue reading “Podcast: Grace Tempany, Multi-potentialite and teacher-extraordinaire”

Tough-Love Lessons of Bikram Yoga

“We students (and future teachers) needed to learn how to be “unknowing,” to embrace beginner’s mind, become skilled followers; we were being asked to suspend our authoritarian ways of thinking to become humble, open, and flexible enough to learn about yoga postures and anatomy and mostly ourselves. How can you understand others or help themContinueContinue reading “Tough-Love Lessons of Bikram Yoga”

The Call to Insecurity

“It turns out that when you stop clinging to the safety and security that you think you have found in a particular lifestyle, other people, your carefully constructed identities, or material things, you find your way home to your truth.” The original title for this piece was “Meta: Choosing or Clinging.” I wrote it moreContinueContinue reading “The Call to Insecurity”

Teaching and Truth

As I write my memoir-in-progress, working title, “Like a Flower Petal Blooming,” I am going to post excerpts from time to time to keep myself fighting Resistance with the capital “R.” Who knew writing a book is like wrestling with satan? LOL This one is a brief excerpt on the theme of honesty and truth.ContinueContinue reading “Teaching and Truth”

On Being Honest

“The problem with creating the habit of lying, especially to yourself, is that after a while, you lose your bearings— you can’t trust yourself and you suffer even more. Your identity is compromised, making you less likely to be able to connect with yourself– your inner wisdom– or others. We need good, healthy relationships basedContinueContinue reading “On Being Honest”

Plateau or Vista? Storytelling about Limits & Potential

I don’t think I want to just sail along through life—coasting, or maintaining this sort of  unconscious auto-pilot state. I don’t want to stay at this plateau, and maybe you don’t either.

The Pain and Hurt of Yoga

“Gaining…wisdom might hurt a little bit, but there’s no better process to dedicate yourself to than mining your own suffering for meaning and truth. And there is no better profession than teaching to witness such beautiful transformation.”

The Landscape of Serendipity

We humans have a tendency to be control freaks. We think we know so much about ourselves (and the world) and I would argue we don’t know the half of it. We also think we are more in control of our lives and our futures than we actually are. So I want to share a littleContinueContinue reading “The Landscape of Serendipity”

Meta: Why Learning? Why Landscapes?

Some of the most amazing learning happens beyond academia, and many of the best teachers positively affect lives outside of strictly academic environments. I hope to find  lifelong students and teachers of all sorts, in various domains, to explore the exciting and valuable learning that occurs everywhere and deliver these stories to the world. In this metaContinueContinue reading “Meta: Why Learning? Why Landscapes?”

Turn the Teacher Off!

“I used to confuse and misuse the two kinds of listening, and I bet many other teachers can relate. As a consequence, the people I cared about, who only needed me to be there and not do anything for them, told me to ‘turn the teacher off!'” Almost every school day for the past thirteen years, I haveContinueContinue reading “Turn the Teacher Off!”

Real Teaching is Risky Business

Recently, I had a minimalist-inspired moment and decided to simplify my life, starting with my living room. I had no problem removing excess decor, but when it came to my beloved bookshelves full of my precious books, I winced. Could I, should I, part with my books? Why had I kept so many all theseContinueContinue reading “Real Teaching is Risky Business”

A Meditation on Learning

Every moment has something to teach. Can you look closely, deliberately, at the landscapes in your life as opportunities to learn — to live fully and authentically as you, as nobody else can ever do, except the one and only you? You don’t have to do it well. Just try. Learning lends life its meaning,ContinueContinue reading “A Meditation on Learning”

Post Surgical Post

Post Surgical Post: To suffer or not to suffer; there is no question So, here I am, your Landscapes for Learning hostess with the mostess, recovering from surgery and pondering the meaning of life, or um…rather…philosophizing about suffering…again. (That’s supposed to be a funny reference to my previous post.)  As I sit here coexisting rather unpleasantly with myContinueContinue reading “Post Surgical Post”

Dear Dr. Jordan B. Peterson

Dear Dr. Jordan B. Peterson, Thank you for being: Courageous, Informed, Logical, Intense, Persistent, and Passionate. I suppose you could say I have deeply immersed myself in a self-made course called, ‘The life and times of Dr. Jordan B.Peterson.’ I have been reading your book, Maps of Meaning (Routledge, 1999), reading about you online, watchingContinueContinue reading “Dear Dr. Jordan B. Peterson”

Podcast 000: About Me

In this, the inaugural podcast, I introduce myself, the purpose of the Landscapes for Learning platform and the LFL Podcast Features. I look forward to sharing the inspiring stories and conversations I’ll be having with extraordinary “ordinary” people from around the world. I hope you’ll tune in and enjoy the journey with me!

I am here. Now what?

  A meditation on learning and brief defense of the humanities. Life is suffering. Life is one big problem; it’s problem after problem after problem after problem, isn’t it? I am not trying to be Debbie Downer here, but this is the fundamental truth of human life–it involves suffering. Nobody denies that pain is true.ContinueContinue reading “I am here. Now what?”

Learning to Unlearn

It was in the hot room at a Bikram yoga studio, standing directly under the bright lights, in front of the mirrors, trying to balance, in silence, everyday, for 90 minutes, where I learned the art of unlearning. I learned to let go. A vital aspect of learning is unlearning. Unlearning is intending to letContinueContinue reading “Learning to Unlearn”

Dear Mr. & Mrs. Know-it-all

Dear Mr. & Mrs. Know-it-all, In The American Scholar, his speech to Harvard graduates, Ralph Waldo Emerson proclaimed, “Life is a dictionary!” encouraging Americans, especially the young scholars in front of him, to trust their own experiences: direct, sensory experience in nature, if they truly wanted to live a life of learning. You can readContinueContinue reading “Dear Mr. & Mrs. Know-it-all”

When you woke up. A poem

Sometimes I wonder if I am an example of a midlife crisis. Sometimes I wonder if I just missed an important lesson that everyone else must have learned a long time ago. Maybe I missed that lesson because I was drunk? Maybe I was shopping? Maybe I was  busy? I was probably busy. Or distracted.ContinueContinue reading “When you woke up. A poem”

A Soul’s Calling.

What does it mean to follow your path, your soul’s calling? I am learning that finding my purpose doesn’t have a whole lot to do with thinking, as if a problem needs solving or something  needs “figuring out.” If anything, my rational mind very often seems to get in the way. (See Julia Cameron’s The Artist’sContinueContinue reading “A Soul’s Calling.”

Dear Efficient Utilitarian Student,

Dear Efficient Utilitarian Student, It’s not your fault that you were raised with the great American values of utility and efficiency. These values are enacted and followed by virtually everyone around you– your parents, your school, your government; they’ve been enacted throughout most of American history, especially in the Industrial Revolution, in the world ofContinueContinue reading “Dear Efficient Utilitarian Student,”

A Note to the Spiritual Academic

Dear Spiritual Academic, According to the super cute monk, Thich Nhat Hanh, “Insight can’t be found in sutras, commentaries, or Dharma talks. Liberation and awakened understanding can’t be found by devoting ourselves to the study of Buddhist scriptures. This is like hoping to find fresh water in dry bones. Returning to the present moment, usingContinueContinue reading “A Note to the Spiritual Academic”

Just a thought…How Higher Ed. Can Help the Natural Landscape

After reading “Ending Extracurricular Privilege” by Olga Kahzan in December 21st issue of The Atlantic Monthly, I realize just how much influence higher education has on the values, beliefs, behaviors, habits, and choices of their incoming students as well as their parents and their high schools. (I mean, I know the competition among students overContinueContinue reading “Just a thought…How Higher Ed. Can Help the Natural Landscape”

Waiting to be exposed, I mean, publish.

Rationalizing voice: I have to wait to share this site with friends until I can produce enough perfectly awesome perfectly revised and perfectly edited content that can withstand criticism and ridicule. Fear/ Inner Critic: (My ego isn’t ready! I can’t be that vulnerable!) Rationalizing voice: I will have to wait until I figure out what thisContinueContinue reading “Waiting to be exposed, I mean, publish.”

Changing the Landscape from the Inside Out

Each moment of life is a new moment, and we get to choose how to experience each one. We can label some moments as less useful than others; we can label a moment as boring, good, bad, nothing special, amazing; we can judge it as entirely purposeless or extraordinarily purposeful. The point is, we getContinueContinue reading “Changing the Landscape from the Inside Out”