Our cultural values and conditioning are making us sick. Grappling with our unique forms of suffering and problems, whatever that entails or however it manifests uniquely within each person, directly opposes our modern cultural values that are about promoting happiness, getting people to literally buy into the story that they need comfort and pleasure (permanently) and encouraging a dependence on everything outside of themselves rather than within. Guess what? You are enough and you can "fill" your life by getting to know who you REALLY are through facing your fears and challenges. It requires honesty as well as building courage and personal discipline, and that's exactly why most people take pills, develop unhealthy dependencies on others, retreat to or stay forever in their comfort zones, and live lives of "quiet desperation" in the words of HD Thoreau.  Our sources of pain are diverse, but we are all flawed and we all suffer-- in our own ways, great and small-- because we are human. It's scary and challenging to face our insecurities and vulnerabilities, but doing so is exactly the path to freedom. You can learn tools and practices to get better at suffering and to suffer less and live with more joy in this very struggle. This podcast is a reading of a couple of excerpts from Part III of the Classic Wisdom for the Modern Human: A Self-Study Guide for Wellness (2019, Amazon) called "Challenge." To know oneself deeply, to express oneself authentically, to be fully present for yourself, even in your pain, is a difficult path, but it is the way to a meaning-filled life of wisdom and wellness.  

Landscapes for Learning

018: CHALLENGE in Our Culture of Comfort

017: Learning as Opportunity Mindset: Undoing Schooling for more Wisdom and Wellness Parents, students, and teachers of all kinds will appreciate this podcast which is a reading of Part V: Learning from the Classic Wisdom for the Modern Human: A Self-Study Guide for Wellness (2019, Amazon) After 14 years as a Humanities educator, I quit teaching in public high school because the American education system is built in a way that discourages authentic learning for wisdom and wellness, demonizes failure, and values competitive achievement to the detriment of personal wellness rooted in balance and wholeness. The system is dying rapidly because it is too slow to update itself to suit modern life. (This doesn't mean it isn't necessary, that it doesn't do a lot of good, or that it cannot transform!) My current goal as a student of mental health and yoga teacher is to bring a wisdom curriculum to students-- which is not only young people and their parents-- but ALL people because humans are built for continual learning, as learning IS vitality. We could do with a bit less schooling in its current form and a lot more wisdom.   Part of the Landscapes for Learning mission is to promote a way of being in the world that is rooted in life-long learning not necessarily for personal gain or social power but for personal wisdom and wellness. It's learning that emphasizes cooperation and competence, encourages people to "go vertical"* with their learning (i.e to travel their inner landscape through self study for self-realization) not only horizontal, and to reconnect with their "unconditioned"* true nature! Learn more about learning, vulnerability, and proper parenting (of self and your children) for wisdom and wellness! Visit LandscapesforLearning.com for more podcasts and blog posts about schooling, learning, education, wisdom, wellness, yoga, and more! References *I mentioned in this podcast another podcast of Eckard Tolle by SoundsTrue where he explains this "horizontal" part of life and the "unconditioned" self.   Bakis, M. (2019) Classic Wisdom for the Modern Human: A Self-Study Guide for Wellness Amazon, Amazon Kindle     

017: Learning as Opportunity Mindset

It may seem foolish and overly-simplistic to encourage people to know who they are and why this process of self-study matters so much, but I would argue that we don't know ourselves nearly as well as we think nor nearly as much as we should!  In this podcast, I outline the five directions that make up the "Self-Study Wheel" found in my Classic Wisdom for the Modern Human: A Self Study Guide for Wellness, 2019, Amazon). It turns out to be a nice description of the elements in the book. Once you hear the overview, you'll want to get the tools and practices in the book and start observing yourself in more ways to self-actualize! I recorded this to prepare for a workshop I will be presenting at a Bikram Yoga studio nearby and hopefully in many more venues in the future. I believe high school and college students could use this wisdom sooner rather than later, as I only recently learned about this map and directions to know myself for wellness and fulfillment and wish I had gotten it much earlier in my life. Having worked with teenagers as a high school teacher/coach and raising four of my own, the self-study curriculum I created is the soft-skills and wisdom we neglect or is found wanting in modern parenting and schooling which is overly-focused on outcomes/results rather than process; grades instead of personal growth and character development; and comparison and competition rather than cooperation and competence. We need more human literacies training for more connection, love, personal responsibility, and self-care. I hope this podcast and my book helps. Have a listen to get inspired to be yourself!

016: WHY and HOW to KNOW THYSELF

This episode is about my own learning about kids, yoga, and self-knowledge over my years teaching high school and raising my own kids. I talk about the future of constant change and how we need to radically alter education to help kids find and live their unique truth. I talk about interpreting images in a text, soft skills, values, the grading system, rescuing and preserving our humanity, and the differences between the usual business of traditional schooling and authentic learning, and much more. The Landscapes for Learning Mission is to help kids thrive and flourish using tools they already own within them to navigate a future that will require them to surf the waves of change on novel landscapes.  I hope to help dismantle traditional schooling and its unhelpful, outdated, and damaging values and persuade teachers, schools, and students to focus their attention on better, more important ways of learning.  My goal is to support all parties in this transformation (and especially by loving and caring for our most valuable asset---our teachers) with their humanity and love for shared humanity in tact.  Help the Landscapes for Learning Mission catch fire! Please share! Please "Like" on Itunes. Follow Landscapes for Learning: @ LandscapesforLearning.com Twitter @Landscps4learn Facebook  https://www.facebook.com/landscapesforlearning/ Instagram: LandscapesforLearning27   SHOW NOTES/References: Lenore Skenazy's Free Range Kids LetGrow.org (BLOG) Podcast Music: Creative Commons License for "Political Lunatics" by Earthling (intro and outro music) "Political Lunatics" by Earthling

015: Future of Education: Learning Beyond Schooling

A brief recap and reflection on some of the central themes from It's Not About the Grades: Landscapes for Learning Beyond Schooling including trust & truth, the effects of traditional schooling, fear, codependency, prohibition of failure, overprotection of parents and more.    Please visit Landscapes for Learning! @landscps4learn (Twitter) LandscapesforLearning (Instagram) https://www.facebook.com/landscapesforlearning/  Podcast Music: Creative Commons License for "Political Lunatics" by Earthling (intro and outro music) "Political Lunatics" by Earthling

014: On Trust & Truth

Hello Listeners! It's Not About the Grades: Love for Learning Beyond Schooling is very close to completion, so I am reading the Introduction here for feedback, as a way of getting "peer review" before I write proposals for publishing it. I would LOVE your input, insight, constructive criticism and HONEST feedback to improve this manuscript draft.   Please visit Landscapes for Learning! @landscps4learn (Twitter) LandscapesforLearning (Instagram) https://www.facebook.com/landscapesforlearning/  Podcast Music: Creative Commons License for "Political Lunatics" by Earthling (intro and outro music) "Political Lunatics" by Earthling

013: It's Not About the Grades: INTRODUCTION

Hello Listeners! It's Not About the Grades: Love for Learning Beyond Schooling is very close to completion, so I am reading a few chapters here for feedback, as a way of getting "peer review" before I write proposals for publishing it. I would LOVE your input, insight, constructive criticism and HONEST feedback to improve this manuscript draft.   Please visit Landscapes for Learning! @landscps4learn (Twitter) LandscapesforLearning (Instagram) https://www.facebook.com/landscapesforlearning/  Podcast Music: Creative Commons License for "Political Lunatics" by Earthling (intro and outro music) "Political Lunatics" by Earthling

012: It's Not About the Grades: PREFACE

"Every student deserves a good teacher, every teacher deserves the opportunity to be a great teacher"  -Teri Almquist     Building an inner connection with yourself isn't easy. This union, or yoga, is hard work. It's about  trust--first in a teacher when you don't yet know how to trust yourself or you are overwhelmed by pain, fear, or self-doubt. But then, little by little, you begin to believe in yourself; then you begin to trust yourself; then you have genuine faith in yourself. You become stronger and more flexible, more balanced through this process. Your teacher is your trusted and loving witness on your unique journey into your inner landscape.  This enormously important teacher-student relationship built on trust is transformative, life-changing. Teri's first teacher, Diane Duscharme believed in her and supported her from the very first moment she entered the yoga studio with a badly injured neck and a pack a day smoking habit, and since then Teri has been paying her transformation forward-- first by becoming a Bikram Yoga Teacher, then opening her own studio, and now providing continuing education for Bikram yoga teachers around the world. A Bikram yoga class is an opportunity to focus in the mirror and concentrate on oneself-- to travel one's inner landscape. It's practicing over and over again, consistently, in order to learn more about oneself.  It's a chance to find that quiet space within us where our truest, most loving self lives--- that place from which we can learn how to mindfully respond to life and all its challenges. It's a landscape for learning.   The Toolbox: Tools for Teaching Bikram Yoga by Teri Almquist available HERE (Amazon) Visit Teri's Studio at Bikram Yoga Merrimack Valley, North Andover, Massachusetts at https://www.bikramyogamv.com/ For more information about teaching seminars, webinars, and professional development visit: https://www.teachfromlove.yoga/ Webinars for teaching yoga at http://webinars.teachfromlove.yoga/ Visit http://www.LandscapesforLearning.com Podcast Music: Creative Commons License for "Political Lunatics" by Earthling (intro and outro music) "Political Lunatics" by Earthling

011: Teri Almquist

  Nick Filth grew up in an abusive home, dropped out of high school after ninth grade, was homeless for a time, and addicted to drugs, but ironically his experiences with THC and psychedelics sent him out of this world then back to his own life-- his truth, which is a place and point of view way more expansive and stunningly beautiful and loving than ever. As soon as I connected with Nick at the Bikram yoga studio where I teach and he practices, we engaged in rich, interesting conversation right away, so naturally we had to record this podcast. So what could a middle-aged, suburban mom, yoga teacher, and former high school teacher share in common with a tattoo artist with a 9th grade education and a proclivity for psychoactive experiences? Find out by listening to a long and winding conversation, and perhaps you'll learn what you, too, share in common with both of us! I am grateful to Nick for this podcast because his real and raw story about his life's journey helped me re-think my current memoir about growing up with typical suburban American values of social comparison, competition, and where my pure, essential self, my true nature, was neglected because overpowered by the conditions and demands of my environment. I am also indebted to him as my teacher because I learned a ton, not only about him and his perspective but also because through the opportunity to dialogue, I can learn more about my own thinking and the ways I connect and communicate with other living beings who are so much more than just bodies controlled by brains. (See list of take-aways below). In this podcast, we discuss psychedelics, the contrast between schooling and authentic learning; conditional and unconditional love; nature versus nurture; truth and expression; the value of balance as it applies to limits and structure and change; Nick's visit to an ashram, his music, tattoos, meditation & yoga, my writing, and much more. This is our contribution to the new long form media and podcasting trend. Enjoy!  You can find out more about Nick here: His webpage:  http://www.nickfilthtattoos.com/ His Tattoo Shop: http://www.hiddenhistorytattoos.com/ His podcast: http://www.nickfilthtattoos.com/polishingtheblackstone/ His record label: https://deafeningassembly.com/ Take-Aways: Learning by Doing (Podcasting)   1. I learned from participation in the dialogue that you learn about yourself and your limited understanding through talking with others.   2. I still need to work on better listening.    3. Listen with my heart and my head. It is the nature of the beast to want to finish your thoughts and express earnestly, in a quest for understanding, but I ought to really be more centered on a quest for connection through the heart than acquiring more insight through knowing/knowledge. Listening with my heart, as Nick said, not so much with the ears. This is a non-intellectual approach to connection and love which is how I want to “be” in the world, not just “know” everything.    4. I’m happy to continually be learning and share this example with people— to face my fears and be vulnerable and open hearted to the world, to my guests and by publishing it, all people. I continue to stop comparing and judging, and I am okay with being judged by others. It's "no big deal" as Pema Chodron might say, as long as I check my aims and they are good-- focused on learning and love and truth.   5. Be authentic. This includes being limited and flawed and searching and floundering  around in the dark, in ambiguity because this is the learning process and the nature of being human (brains trying to order chaos as Nick said)   6. I am getting more and more comfortable with my discomfort and exposure of my true self and my limitations.

010: Nick Filth

“One is never afraid of the unknown; one is afraid of the known coming to an end.” ----Jiddu Krishnamurti Traveling the landscapes for learning is a challenge for so many of us human beings, but Grace Tempany’s personality, disposition, and training in self-inquiry makes her unusually well-suited for riding the waves of change and challenge as she fluidly balances between both the comfort of home and job and the security and order they provide as well as following her restlessness and desire for exploring new landscapes-- the novelty of new people, places, and cultures. She is a dynamic warrior-yogini on the hero’s journey!  Grace is self-described “full of contradictions”-- equally at home with one foot in such formal, structured academic settings like education as well as the other foot in the Yin Yoga and Bikram Yoga communities. She talks with me about her tools for introspection and contemplation as well as how understanding the ways that her mind works is a key component in her increased self-awareness and therefore indispensable to being fully awake which enables her to live with vitality and appreciation. I learned from Grace about traveling beyond one’s literal geographical and internally-prescribed boundaries and limits and being comfortable with that very often uncomfortable process, and how this type of travel is the journey of authentic learning which is going from the known, familiar, and secure to the unknown, unfamiliar, and disorienting place beyond, a process that is anxiety provoking for many people and requires training. There are ways to make yourself more open and vulnerable to the unknown, one step at a time! Grace refers to both Jiddhu Krishnamurti about holding opposing ideas simultaneously rather than feverishly defending an idea and Pema Chodron who teaches about staying with pain and discomfort rather than running from it and to not give up on this struggle. Grace believes that the people who shy away from discomfort will not only die with regret but miss out on their very own life. She urges people to become aware that an important life-learning process exists and with methods and practices, like meditation and yoga, you can become fully alive and present for your own life. I hope you enjoy this discussion about landscapes, learning, and our shared humanity. Visit and follow me, Maureen Bakis, at http://www.LandscapesforLearning.com   Podcast Music: Creative Commons License for "Political Lunatics" by Earthling (intro and outro music) "Political Lunatics" by Earthling    

009: Traveling Landscapes for Learning, Inside and Out, with Grace Tempany

“The best way is to understand yourself, and then you will understand everything. So when you try hard to make your own way, you will help others, and you will be helped by others. Before you make your own way you cannot help anyone, and no one can help you.”  ― Shunryu Suzuki, Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind: Informal Talks on Zen Meditation and Practice Myozen Joan Amaral moved to the Boston area in 2012 from the San Francisco Zen Center to serve as guiding teacher for the Zen Center North Shore. She is delightful, funny, a ray of light, and a calming force to be around. There's a positive and loving attractiveness about her that, as she says at the end of the podcast, impacts others more than anything she could say using words.  As a priest living back out in the world, her primary focus is on the dynamic relationship between formal meditation practice and everyday, messy human life. I met Joan years ago when I went on a World Religions class field trip to the Zen Center and again when she was invited to implement a meditation program for students and teachers at the school where I worked as a high school humanities teacher. In this podcast, Joan talks with me about the interplay of the inner landscape and life on the outer landscape in terms of zazen and the precepts of Zen Buddhism. She talks about the Zen Center and her role as Priest within the local community and individual mindful meditation practice as well as its relationship to community, activism, and social justice.  We also talk about the definition of mindfulness and how it is popularly perceived as a tool for stress reduction, how it’s been limited in some ways because of such perceptions and definition, and the barriers to its acceptance as a valued practice.  Influencing the world and serving others is intimately tied to individual practice, and honing one's practice is a form of social activism benefitting not only the practitioner but all else. I learned some important lessons about myself and my desire to "help others" in this podcast! Enjoy. For more about the North Shore Zen Center: https://zencenternorthshore.org/ For more information about Zen Buddhism: http://www.zen-buddhism.net/   Visit my "love for learning beyond schooling" website at http://www.LandscapesforLearning.com Contact: Landscapesforlearning27@gmail.com Creative Commons License for "Political Lunatics" by Earthling (intro and outro music) "Political Lunatics" by Earthling  

008: Reverend Myozen Joan Amaral on Zen Buddhism, Zazen, and School

"A Parent-Teacher Conference about Values" is a solo episode about my book-in-progress It's Not About The Grades: Love for Learning Beyond Schooling which I hope to revise and publish in the coming months. I provide a brief, yet incomplete, overview of the book in progress and read an excerpt from a chapter that is about the parent-teacher conference I wanted to have while a high school teacher but never really could. Now that I have resigned from my position, I am able to discuss what I see as the critical piece missing from a complete education for high school students as it is severely overshadowed and drowned out completely by the over-valuing of grades.  I invite parents and schools into a conversation about a serious reflection on their values and our culture's values and the mental health of teens, not merely to help kids to be successful students and achievers but rather to be whole, healthy, individual human beings who are able to self-actualize and blossom throughout their lives.  I welcome your comments on the podcast in iTunes and feel free to share your thoughts by emailing me at landscapesforlearning27@gmail.com or visit http://Landscapesforlearning.com -Maureen

007: A Parent-Teacher Conference about Values

"All of humanity's problems stem from his inability to sit quietly in a room alone"- Blaise Pascal One of my goals with the Landscapes for Learning project is to draw more attention to the need for an explicitly taught wisdom curriculum for high schoolers as a counter balance to all the demands of the external landscape put upon kids today. To become wise is to know oneself-- one's essential or fundamental self which is always in a state of becoming and might be creatively developed throughout life. This essential self is foundational to the more social self---roles we play in the practical world, the expectations of others we try to meet. If we can help kids live from the inside out early on in their young lives, they may just be able to stay true to themselves-- to their authentic selves, so that they always have shelter, a home, to which they can return when life on the external landscapes get challenging. One way to travel one's inner landscape is through meditation. Meditation and mindfulness practice has become trendy recently, and it is useful as a relaxation tool, but it's also an avenue to something deeper-- to enter into the world of the essential self. My guest in this LFL podcast episode is Allen Gaskell who has been practicing meditation regularly for many decades, as well as practicing yoga, forest-bathing (which he didn't know had that name until recently!), white-water rafting, and other outdoor immersion activities. He is a former Mental Health Counselor who worked in prisons, within the court system, and created a counseling center at Salem State University, its first. He also worked for many years counseling veterans with PTSD. A Vietnam Veteran himself, with 3 Tours in Reconnaissance, Alan enthusiastically enlisted in the military after high school in N.Y. and later attended college to study comparative religion at the University of Vermont. Shortly after, he stumbled across a book about Vipassana and the rest is meditation and mindfulness history. He recently completed a 90-day silent retreat, so I was curious about what that experience was like and thought others might be interested too. He talks with me about the value of meditation in his life, especially today on our very noisy and busy external landscape. We talk about the workings of our minds when we observe it through meditation or yoga practice, thoughts about why, how, and who ought to be teaching about the inner landscapes, how to "sell" suffering to others or invite them into self-reflection and self-awareness, and how to learn more about our own humanity to recover it from a life of overwhelm in a technological-consumerist culture. I loved our almost entirely unedited two-hour conversation! Enjoy!   Visit and follow me, Maureen Bakis, at http://www.LandscapesforLearning.com   Creative Commons License for "Political Lunatics" by Earthling (intro and outro music) "Political Lunatics" by Earthling

006: Allen Gaskell

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 learning with an open heart and an open mind all along his journey. Whether meditating, practicing or teaching yoga, biking across Canada for charity, being bullied as a young boy in Pakistan, coming unglued from his chair in the corporate world, or dancing,  Changu sees the beauty in everything-- every experience, every person he meets, good and bad. Trusting the process of life as ever-unfolding allows him to live deeply connected to himself, others, and the world around him. Ever grateful for all of his life-long learning, Changu consistently lives and speaks his truth. Our conversation about landscapes for learning includes Changu’s immigration to Canada, transformation, compassion, integrity, Bikram Yoga Teacher Training, world travel, “trusting the process,” teaching, yoga, faith, and more. Changu and I will chat again in the future, delving more deeply into his traveling and teaching adventures, so enjoy his first podcast and come back for another! Please check out Changu's Facebook pages, Tulandandasana Everywhere and Humans of Bikram Yoga for stunning photos from Changu's yoga postures on gorgeous landscapes around the world and inspirational stories about individual transformation resulting from the practice of Bikram Yoga.  Watch this incredibly beautiful slow-motion video of Changu below....and his balancing stick poses from around the world! Balancing Stick from around the world!  

003: Changu Changezi

"All good things are wild & free" -Henry David Thoreau Niki tells her story about traveling across the landscapes of nature-- as avid hiker/outdoor enthusiast, wolf-advocate (yes, they need our help!), Bikram yogi, and exotic animal handler. After a not-so-great, though sadly typical, experience with public high "schooling," Niki blossomed into an avid learner and teacher after she answered what she terms her "Call of the Wild." Niki is a wonderful and interesting example of the various forms of learning and teaching that happen outside the narrow academic realm of school. For the students who struggle in school or who don't succeed as a student in the academic realm, this episode is for you! A few quotes from our conversation: "When life is trying to tell you something, when the some 'thing' keeps calling you back, you should probably listen." "I learned not to have expectations... or believe in limits about what I could do or couldn't do." "I just knew I was in the right place. I just knew-- this is it. This is my life. This is me." "So many doors opened for me." "I am so grateful....I love my life. I wouldn't change anything." I really hope you enjoy listening to Niki about her sense of self-awareness; interconnectedness; the wild; listening; and openness to what life brings. Her  enthusiasm for authentic forms of learning and teaching are contagious! For more information: Curious Creatures @ https://www.curiouscreatures.org/  ​The New England original Interactive LIVE ANIMAL Programs & Parties Established by Dean Kosch in 1987 Wolf Hollow @ http://www.wolfhollowipswich.org/ 114 Essex Road Ipswich, MA 01938 Tel: (978) 356-0216 Bikram Yoga  Find a studio location anywhere in the world. @https://www.bikramyoga.com/ Creative Commons License for "Political Lunatics" by Earthling (intro and outro music) "Political Lunatics" by Earthling

004: Niki Tracchia

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