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<img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/hxn9dbuhd/image/upload/v1779805381/wysiwyg/ozi1xgloat0cqkbonzko.png" style="width:600px;display:block;vertical-align:top;margin:5px auto;text-align:center;cursor:pointer;padding:0px 1px;user-select:none;position:relative;box-sizing:inherit;max-width:100%" /> Ramona is a conversational AI platform rooted in Shinzen Young’s 50+ years of teaching, practice, and system-building. Some of you may have heard Shinzen speak about the Ramona Project, the Word Power mechanism, or participated in early pilot research through the Life Practice Program. For those hearing about it for the first time: Shinzen has spent his life serving students directly. But even an extraordinary teacher can only support so many people at a time. UM teacher training was a way to scale the support. Ramona is our attempt to help scale that support even further. We’re building self-adapting, practice-oriented guidance available to millions, whenever they need it. <img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/hxn9dbuhd/image/upload/v1779805360/wysiwyg/iyzvaap8vnxtfqpbnnnj.png" style="width:600px;display:block;vertical-align:top;margin:5px auto;text-align:center;cursor:pointer;padding:0px 1px;user-select:none;position:relative;box-sizing:inherit;max-width:100%" /> What is Ramona?Ramona is a personalized practice companion. It can:<ul><li>Chat with you 24/7 about your mindfulness practice</li><li>Explore practices rooted in Shinzen’s teachings</li><li>Guide you through difficult emotions and life challenges</li><li>Teach techniques and guide you through them</li><li>Practice with you from your phone or web browser</li></ul> This is not a generic chatbot with a single system prompt. Ramona is a developed infrastructure built in direct, ongoing collaboration with Shinzen himself. Why we’re raising funds Our long-term vision is to make Ramona available to millions of people — a Wikipedia of sorts — for attentional training, emotional maturity, clarity, equanimity, and values-aligned action at scale. To build a more stable, accessible, and useful Ramona pilot that more people can try, we need more time and resources. Your support will help us:<ul><li>Ship the next version of Ramona to a wider group of early users</li><li>Deepen the quality and accuracy of Ramona's guidance</li><li>Expand the technique library in collaboration with Shinzen</li><li>Build the infrastructure needed to support thousands of practitioners</li></ul> How you can helpBy donating, you're helping bring the first public version of Ramona into the world. Your feedback as an early user will directly shape its development, making it more useful, safer, and better aligned with Shinzen's teachings. About the team<img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/hxn9dbuhd/image/upload/v1779805494/wysiwyg/yogksxe5eiqsy5bemzxz.jpg" style="width:600px;display:block;vertical-align:top;margin:5px auto;text-align:center;cursor:pointer;padding:0px 1px;user-select:none;position:relative;box-sizing:inherit;max-width:100%" />Ramona is built by a small team of engineers, technologists, mindfulness practitioners, and meditation teachers working directly with Shinzen. We believe this kind of technology should be developed carefully, responsibly, and with deep practice experience behind it. Milestone BreakdownOur initial goal of $60,000 will fund Phase 1 development. Stretch goals beyond that will take Ramona further toward its full vision. Phase 1 → Beta Ramona (Goal: $60,000)Fund the core conversational AI companion rooted in Shinzen's system. This covers development, infrastructure, and getting Ramona into the hands of early practitioners with a limited set of techniques. Phase 2 → Expanded Technique Library (Stretch Goal: $150,000)Incorporate a wider range of Shinzen's frameworks for more precise and structured guidance, including early versions of Word Power. Phase 3 → Ramona 1.0 (Total Goal: $300,000)With bigger total funding, we can ship Ramona as a complete, stable product built to serve practitioners at scale, not just a beta. This is the version we've been working toward.  FAQWhat will the funds be used for?Funds are allocated across three phases of development. Phase 1 focuses on the core Ramona platform. Phases 2 and 3 are stretch goals that expand the depth and scope of the system. A breakdown of each phase and what it covers is outlined above. Is the team being paid?The team has volunteered significant time over the past two years. The majority of the funds will go toward compensating contributors and supporting the infrastructure, allowing us to scale development at the pace this project deserves. What happens if you exceed $60,000?Anything beyond our initial goal goes directly toward stretch goals: expanding the technique library and ultimately launching Ramona 1.0 as a full public product. The more we raise, the further we can take Ramona. When will I get access to Ramona? Donor access will be granted after the campaign closes. Once we've wrapped up the campaign, we'll reach out to all eligible donors with instructions to get started. Your support during the campaign is what makes this possible. Thank you for being part of it. How is this different from other AI tools?<img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/hxn9dbuhd/image/upload/v1779805541/wysiwyg/pdet09tfuk7uylvurk9m.jpg" style="width:600px;display:block;vertical-align:top;margin:5px auto;text-align:center;cursor:pointer;padding:0px 1px;user-select:none;position:relative;box-sizing:inherit;max-width:100%" /> Ramona is not a generic chatbot. It is built on Shinzen Young's 50+ years of teaching and is developed in direct collaboration with him. The system is designed to reflect the structure and depth of his approach, not just surface-level mindfulness content. What is Word Power?Word Power is a framework Shinzen has developed over many years for working with internal experience through language. It is a core part of his system and will be integrated into Ramona as a dedicated layer of guidance. What is Applied Category Theory and why does it matter?Applied Category Theory is a branch of mathematics that Shinzen believes can provide a rigorous foundation for understanding how different types of human experience and communication relate to each other. We are at the early stages of this development and plan to incorporate it into Ramona once Shinzen's ideas have been validated in collaboration with mathematicians. It is the most ambitious part of the vision and the furthest out.<img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/hxn9dbuhd/image/upload/v1779805558/wysiwyg/k63s2ixw9bztownr0wea.png" style="width:600px;display:block;vertical-align:top;margin:5px auto;text-align:center;cursor:pointer;padding:0px 1px;user-select:none;position:relative;box-sizing:inherit;max-width:100%" />

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