Rules of participation and rules of the circle

Taking part

• Free at every step. Not one step of the practice opens for money — not now, not later. A gift is possible once, after a finished step, and only if you want to: to the project, to the founder or to your own leader. It is thanks afterwards, not a fee, and it changes nothing.
• You may leave on any day. With no explanation and no consequences. The door opens both ways; you can come back too.
• From eighteen years old.
• A missed day is not a failure. Come back to today’s card: there is nothing to catch up on and nothing to count. What is worth guarding is that a break does not become a habit; that is what the two-minute minimum is for.
• Sixteen places in a cohort — two circles of 6–8 people. Not an artificial scarcity: in a circle like that everyone gets to speak, and one leader can truly hold both circles. You can also take the course without a circle — that is a legitimate path.

The circle

• The right to stay silent — our safety rule. You may come and say nothing — that is full participation, not a refusal. We ask one thing: while the circle is on, be with it — listen, stay off your phone and keep what is said. It is not an exam: if today you are not up to it, you can simply skip the circle.
• What is said in the circle stays in the circle. Retelling someone else’s words outside it is not done, even without names.
• We speak about ourselves and about facts. “I held my tongue when I wanted to sting” — yes. “Everyone around me is irritating” — no.
• We do not judge — neither aloud nor inwardly. We are glad of another’s success and do not compare ourselves with them.
• Everyone does what they can. An intention for tomorrow is made to yourself, not promised to the circle: no one asks about it at the next meeting.
• No advice until it is asked for. And no judging of anyone’s practice: comparison kills a circle faster than anything.
• Timing. An hour, round the circle, each with their own time. The leader watches the clock, not the correctness.
• The shared deed is done without money; the circle has no cash box. This too is our safety rule, not a word of the Russian ethical tradition the programme stands on: it does not regard honest earning as self-interest. We simply do not want money passing between people in a circle.
• No arguing about faith or politics. We argue with no one and convert no one. People of any faith and of none are here as equals.

What is not here

• No guru. The leader is not a teacher and not a go-between but a keeper of the circle’s rhythm and safety: a practitioner like you who simply started earlier. The leader leads no rites, checks nobody and does not interpret for others. The leader keeps a diary too, and slips too.
• No initiations, degrees, ranks or chosen ones. The practice grows in depth and over time, not in titles. No scores, no ratings, no counters of days in a row.
• No obligations. No vows, no fees, no compulsory participation in anything afterwards.
• No preaching. We do not invite you to join anything or to renounce anything.

What is ours and what comes from the books

The thirty days, the season of about three months, a circle of six to eight people for an hour and a half, the number twelve and the tiers of the qualities, the two-minute minimum, the Wheel and these rules themselves are our own working arrangement. We do not pass it off as the words of the tradition the programme stands on, and we will fix whatever does not work. About the source — honestly and in detail on the “About” page.

If something is wrong in the circle

If there is pressure or judgement in a circle, or these rules are broken, you can write not to the leader but to a person outside the circle: someone who does not take part in the cohort and does not depend on the leader for work or money. The contact will appear on this page before the cohort starts. Without your consent the complaint is not passed on to the leader.

What we ask in return

One thing only: honesty in the records. Nobody checks or grades the practice diary — it is for you. An embellished diary deceives exactly one person.

Data

We treat what you write with care: in detail in the privacy policy. In short: only what is necessary, passed to no one, deleted at your first word.

Who sees what. The leader sees neither your evening notes nor your Wheel: this is closed off in the platform itself, not merely promised by a rule. If you want the leader to read something, write to the leader yourself. The leader sees the questionnaires only as a summary without names, and only when there are at least five: they are there to test the method itself, not to grade you. The leader also sees your mark for the week, if you set one, — so as to write in time to whoever is having a hard time — and, when a group has at least five people, the total number of those who wrote on at least 21 days, without names. The leader does not see how many days you have not logged in.