Study the coursework in conversation, in the senseis' own words, always named.

The Everyday Buddhist Companion lets you ask questions of the courses you've taken and hear the answer in the voice of the sensei who taught it, with a way back to the lesson itself.

It is not a teacher, and it does not pretend to be one.

Three things happen, in this order

You ask

A question from a course you've taken, or one you've been

It answers in a sensei's words

Every teaching comes from a course a sensei reviewed and approved. You always see whose words you are hearing.

It points you to the lesson

Follow the reference back to the source and hear the teaching as it was originally given.

What it will not do

It is not a teacher, and it declines to be treated as one. It is not a substitute for a minister, for your sangha, or for a Sunday morning. It is built to point you toward those, not away from them.

When a conversation reaches something that deserves a person, it says so and points the way. That is the companion working, not failing.


If you have ever worried that another screen is one more thing standing between you and real presence, so do we. That is why its measure of success is what you carry beyond it.

Whose teachings it carries

Everything the companion teaches comes from Everyday Buddhist courses, carried with each sensei's explicit consent and their own review of how their material is represented.

  • Jon Turner Sensei has worked in it daily for months; his courses were the first carried. Ellen Hamada Sensei and Dr. Mutsumi Wondra Sensei are currently adding their courses.

  • Every teaching names the sensei it came from. The naming is the promise we made to them.

  • Consent is held indefinitely and can be withdrawn by a sensei at any time.

What you share stays yours

The companion keeps only what you allow it to keep. You can read everything it holds about you, correct it, or erase it entirely, whenever you want.

No one else reads your conversations. Not the senseis, and not the people who run Everyday Buddhist.

Our full privacy policy and terms describe exactly what we do and do not do with both your words and the teachings themselves.

How people are invited

Invitations go out in small groups, on purpose. Small groups let us give each person's experience real attention, and they let us slow down if something needs attention.

If you subscribe to Everyday Buddhist and haven't heard from us yet, you will. There is nothing to join and no list to get on. If an invitation reaches you at the wrong time, declining costs nothing.

Your Questions, Answered

  • Yes. What makes it ours is what it is built on: only teachings our senseis have approved, always named, never invented.

  • The senseis did, in their courses. The companion's job is to bring the right teaching to your question and to say whose it is. When it speaks in its own voice, it does not attribute those words to anyone.

  • No. If you ask it to be one it will say so directly. It is a way to study material you already have access to, in conversation rather than in a video player.

  • No. It is built to do the opposite. When a conversation reaches something that deserves a person, it says so and points you toward one. That behaviour is built in deliberately.

  • It stays yours. Nothing is kept without your explicit yes, you can read and erase everything it holds, and no one else reads your conversations. What you write is not used to train AI models.

  • We hold them as a conservator. They are used to answer questions inside the companion, always attributed, and a sensei can withdraw at any time. What we do and do not permit is set out in our terms, and we would rather you read that page than take our word here.

  • No. Your conversations are not used to train AI models, and neither are the senseis' teachings. The tools we build with run under commercial terms that prohibit training on our content, and where the setting is ours to choose, we keep it off.

  • Each one reviews their own material before it is carried and gives explicit consent. It was built alongside them rather than presented to them.

  • There is no separate charge. The companion is part of an Everyday Buddhist subscription.

  • Invitations are going out in small groups so that early users get real attention. If you subscribe to Everyday Buddhist, yours will come.

  • Tell us. There is a way to report anything from inside the companion itself, and it goes to a person. We would much rather hear about it than not.