This document is a provisional draft written before the formal establishment of the first circle.
It defines the initial structure for collective refinement.
Upon founding, the circle will review, amend, and formally adopt or reject each section.

Inspirational Traditions

Context for The Practice Circle

1. Western Lineage

1.1. The Quakers (Religious Society of Friends)

Essence: Direct experience of truth without clergy or creed.
Practice: Silent meetings for worship and consensus-based decision making.
Lesson: Discipline can replace doctrine; authority can rest in process, not personality.
Keep: Silence, procedural consensus, rotation of roles, transparency.
Discard: Moral conformity and conflict avoidance.

“Truth is to be lived, not believed.” — Early Quaker principle

1.3. Benedictine and Monastic Orders (Europe)

Essence: Rhythmic daily structure balancing work, study, and contemplation.
Practice: Collective rhythm of prayer and labor under a shared rule.
Lesson: Routine can ground attention; community can discipline ego.
Keep: Structured daily rhythm, service as dignity.
Discard: Hierarchical vows and obedience to authority.

“Ora et labora — pray and work.” — Rule of St. Benedict

2. Non-Western Lineage

2.1. Zen Monastic Circles (East Asia)

Essence: Discipline of form, silence, and embodiment.
Practice: Zazen (seated meditation), samu (work practice), teishō (dialogue).
Lesson: Form clarifies awareness.
Keep: Postural discipline, breath awareness.
Discard: Guru dependency and rank fixation.

“After enlightenment, carry water and chop wood.” — Zen saying

2.3. Sufi Tariqas (Middle East, North Africa, South Asia)

Essence: Remembrance (dhikr) and dissolution of ego through rhythm and devotion.
Lesson: Rhythm opens compassion; secrecy corrupts it.
Keep: Communal rhythm and heart orientation.
Discard: Personality cults and closed initiation.

“The lamps are different, but the Light is the same.” — Rumi

2.5. Indigenous North American Talking Circles

Essence: Equality through turn-taking and presence.
Practice: Speaking one at a time with silence between.
Lesson: Equality requires visible order.
Keep: Object-based turn taking.
Discard: Story without action.

“Listen, or your tongue will make you deaf.” — Cherokee proverb

2.7. Sarvodaya Shramadana (Sri Lanka, 1958–present)

Essence: Community awakening through shared labor and meditation.
Lesson: Inner change and social change are one.
Keep: Service as practice.
Discard: Bureaucratic centralization.

“We build the road, and the road builds us.” — Sarvodaya motto

2.9. Aikido Dojos (Japan)

Essence: Embodied non-resistance; harmony in motion.
Lesson: Conflict is training for balance.
Keep: Body intelligence and relational awareness.
Discard: Belt hierarchy.

“True victory is victory over oneself.” — Morihei Ueshiba

3. Cross-Cultural Pattern

Element	Function	Traditions
Silence and stillness	Reset perception	Quaker, Zen, Vipassanā, Talking Circles
Structured equality	Contain ego	Quaker, Palaver, Ubuntu
Service as practice	Embed ethics in work	Benedictine, Gandhian, Sarvodaya
Procedural authority	Prevent cults	Quaker, Sangha
Embodied awareness	Prevent abstraction	Zen, Aikido
Federation and autonomy	Scale integrity	Quaker, Sangha
Reflection in daily life	Integrate ethics	Stoic, Confucian