Terms of use

Plain language, version v0.3, last updated 31 August 2026. What the Everyday Buddhist Companion is, what it is not, and the terms you accept when you begin. The version you accept is recorded with your consent, so you can always see which terms you agreed to.

Who offers this

The Companion is offered by Everyday Buddhist, a nonprofit. You can reach us through Contact or at support@everydaybuddhist.org. These terms cover the Companion only; the Everyday Buddhist website and school have their own.

What it is

A study companion for Shin Buddhist practice. It answers your questions from courses that named teachers have reviewed and approved for this use, and it names the teacher and the course behind what it gives you. It is here to help you sit with the teaching and find your way toward it, and toward the sangha and teachers who hold it.

What it is not

• Not a teacher, and not a sensei. The teachings are the teachers'; the companion carries them. It will not speak as a teacher or take one's place.
• Not therapy or medical care. It cannot diagnose or treat, and nothing it says is medical, legal, or financial advice. Please do not use it as the basis for decisions about your health or medication, your safety, your legal rights, your finances, or whether to stay in a situation that may be dangerous. It cannot see your full circumstances. When a decision could really affect you, take it to a person who can: a professional, a teacher, someone who knows you.
• Not crisis support. If you are in danger, please reach real help. In the US, call or text 988, or 911 for an emergency. The companion will point you there rather than try to hold it itself.
• Not a decision-maker or spiritual director. Your decisions stay with you, and with the people who can sit with you.
• Not able to act outside your conversation. It cannot contact anyone for you. It cannot call 911 or 988, message family or friends, or notify a person or a temple on your behalf, and no one is reading conversations as they happen. If it ever seems to offer or claim any of that, no outside action has occurred: do not rely on it, and please tell us.

It can be wrong

The companion's answers are generated by an AI system. It is built to say an honest "I don't have that" rather than invent, and it marks a response it could not verify. Even so, it can misremember, misattribute, or state something with confidence that is not so. When something matters, go to the source: the lesson it names, a sensei, the sangha.

That includes what it says about itself. The companion is not the authority on Everyday Buddhist's own policies, your account, what is kept or deleted, or what it can and cannot do. Those are governed by this page, the privacy policy, and the controls you can actually see in the service. If an answer conflicts with them, trust the pages, not the answer, and please tell us.

The teachings belong to their teachers

Each teacher has consented to their courses being used in the Companion, always with their name on what is taught, and each can withdraw that consent. If a teacher withdraws, their material leaves the Companion. We hold the teachings as a conservator: we do not use them, or your conversations, to train AI models, and a teacher's consent to this use does not extend to promotional use, which would be a separate agreement on its own terms.

Please treat what the companion shares the same way. It is for your own study: do not republish or redistribute it, pass it off as your own, or use automated tools to extract it.

Your part

Access is by invitation and is for you personally. The Companion is for adults; it is not offered to anyone under 18. Use it in good faith, for practice and study, and not in ways that could put other people at risk or harm the teachers and the sangha.

An early service

The Companion is young and offered in an early form. We may change it, pause it, or retire parts of it, and what it draws on may change as teachers' consent changes. We do not promise that it is always available or always right.

Our responsibility, plainly

We offer the Companion as it is, without warranties, and we work to make it worthy of your trust. To the fullest extent the law allows, Everyday Buddhist, its teachers, and its volunteers are not liable for indirect or consequential damages arising from your use of the Companion, and our total liability to you is limited to the amount you have paid to use it. Nothing in these terms limits any liability that the law does not allow to be limited.

Governing law

These terms are governed by the laws of the State of California.

When these terms change

These terms carry a version and a date, and we keep prior versions. A change that matters is announced before it applies, and your consent record shows which version you accepted. When the terms change in a way that matters, we ask you to read and accept the new version before your next conversation; we do not treat silence as agreement.

Questions? See Contact.