Members Agreement

AGREEMENT AND PARTICIPATION GUIDE FOR MEMBERS

“We are looking for dedicated students committed to change and growth as better human beings. In our school we share special physical, mental and spiritual abilities, which help to awaken your inner being, helping you to create external changes in your world and your community. Those who are only hungry to grow their ego and obtain personal power and information without value for life will be rejected. Our teachings do not support this method of life, as we believe that it will only lead to unhappiness. People with a sincere heart and a thirst for knowledge for inner growth will be more than satisfied in our school ”.

Read these lines and fill out the membership form by clicking on the button indicated at the end of these policies.

AUTHENTICITY OF YOUR PERSONAL IDENTITY

We are committed to the security of user data, so your privacy is as important as the authenticity of the identity of each member and user. Our study community is based on trust and transparency with all members and/or users.

All members must provide true identity data. Pseudonyms, aliases or false names will be rejected and will be understood as identity theft.
Each member will be required to provide any of these documents that help validate their identity and match their full name and that will be set up in their study online classroom: National identity document (DNI, citizenship card, foreigner's card or passport), plus a utility bill in their name, and a photograph of them holding the ID document they are sending.
We will not process and/or cancel your registration if your identity cannot be validated.
A videoconference interview may be required, which will be scheduled by the student enrollment officer. You must be willing to attend at a mutually agreeable time. A link to the virtual appointment will be sent to you.

STUDENT IDENTITY & ADDRESS VERIFICATION POLICY

Physical Location Validation Protocol

To ensure the integrity of our academic community and maintain global digital security standards, students may be required to complete a Mailing Address Verification.

This process utilizes the Postcard Verification Method. A physical card containing a unique alphanumeric activation token (verification code) will be dispatched to the student's registered address.

Upon receipt, the student must enter this code into the platform to finalize their Location Identity Validation. This procedure ensures that course materials and services are provided to a legitimate and verifiable physical identity.

POLITICS AND RELIGION AWAY FROM OUR CLASSROOMS

Political and religious propaganda is strictly forbidden within the spaces of this study community so as not to infringe on the development of free personality and expression of the same.  Racist, misogynist, classist, neo-fascist, xenophobic comments or behavior, among others, are a crime and will result in the total cancellation of student membership.

THE CONSUMPTION OF PSYCHOACTIVE SUBSTANCES IS PROHIBITED.

Our arts and teachings do not contemplate the use of psychoactive substances, whether of vegetable or synthetic origin, common in therapies, shamanic practices, astral travel, spiritual experiences or others. We believe that in order to reach spiritual experiences, understanding or so-called enlightenment in life it is not necessary to reach these altered states of mind due to drugs. The use of psychoactive substances is totally prohibited and is a criminal act and grounds for cancellation of membership.

Technology not authorized and supported on our website

Use of VPN or proxy that invalidates your real location and identity will be blocked by our security, and your member login, if you have one, may be blocked. We recommend that you do not use this technology while using our website services. Disable any technology that may block your access to our classrooms, browsing or shopping, so that you can enjoy all of our online community services without restrictions. (T&C policy apply).

A connection via VPN or proxy may be recognized as fraudulent, you are responsible for the proper use of your user, connect from a point that is recognized by the system as your initial registration location. The time of suspension of your user or study membership may not be recovered, and the recurrence of unrecognized connections (devices or locations) as a member of our website and the use of private areas may cause the total suspension of your membership.

PARTICIPATION RULES

Respect our school and what it stands for, instructor, classmates, teachings and living spaces. Respect yourself as well. If this is not done we will assume that you will not respect the teachings either and that you will not reach our goals and common objectives as a school. We also require that all students agree with the qualities to be cultivated in our school, as well as with the precepts of this community, which you can read below.
Each member is responsible for creating a positive atmosphere of harmony and respect. Speak with good purpose about others, including yourself. Support your fellow members by sharing your knowledge, not your ego.
Be willing to do what it takes to excel in your studies in the arts you study. We are primarily a training school for personal mastery. Our goal is to bring you to a level of personal mastery and proficiency in your arts, and we expect you to have that same goal.
Our community operates according to the natural and ethical laws of right conduct. Ricardo Zapata offers his experience from years of practice in his martial systems, the bamboo flute (shakuhachi) and other arts, so this is a place to share his teachings. It is the responsibility of each member to honor and sincerely follow these teachings.
A few minutes before it is time to start class, tutoring or your individual practice at home, you should condition and warm up your body, sit on your knees and dedicate yourself to meditate. Use this time to free your mind from the day's issues and prepare for study.
If you have previous experience with the technique or subject being studied and you are working with someone who does not, you can guide them, but do not attempt to correct or instruct your partner if you do not have the status of a teacher.
Respect those who have more experience than you. Never argue or compare technique. Everyone studies the same principles, so be careful not to push your interpretations of the technique. There are as many points of view as there are ways of interpretation, so learn them all.
If you are not sure what to do in a particular situation, ask questions or just move on. Although it may seem like there are many forms of etiquette to remember, these you will do naturally as you continue to study. Please don't be resentful if you are corrected on etiquette or any specific topic, to each of us you are important, it is for your safety and your learning experience.
All affiliates must take a membership, which is activated with the purchase of any of the plans and programs (quarterly, annual, etc.), this is already included in your plan or study cycle (study memberships), which is explained and available on our website; this identifies you as an affiliate and gives you an educational value as it offers you periodic study information during the entire time of the course.
All payments are in advance and must be made. You agree to make your contribution for course fees, assessments and certifications, workshops or other events in which you have enrolled and committed.
It is your responsibility to attend classes and tutoring in the schedule assigned to you or scheduled by videoconference, the time of this schedule will be configured only for you and you must understand that this time cannot be recovered for your non-attendance, only in justified cases and under consideration. 
Level certifications are suggested and necessary. They allow you to classify yourself in the level you are completing. This test can only be taken, endorsed and certified by Ricardo Zapata in the arts he teaches, certificates that are issued only under the endorsement and method of master Zapata. You must understand that these certificates have a value beyond the economic and respond to the level of inner maturity as an artist or practitioner of our arts that you consciously know you possess, that your teacher puts to give it to you, but that finally it is life who requires you to put it into practice.
All members must be fully identified. To do so, you must present a photo ID with your full name on it. Any certification issued by our community will only be in response to the name that appears on this document associated with your account.
This study community does not take kindly to those who put titles or degrees of knowledge before a sincere relationship with their teacher. People with double standards and who are disrespectful to their teacher will not be admitted to our school.
Any damage caused by you to the practice elements must be repaired or replaced as the case may be by you in its entirety.
This community will be open only to those who comply with and respect these rules of participation, those who do not, will not be allowed to join and/or will be rejected. 
The study memberships have a validity period, this is indicated and described along with its benefits in our store before purchasing it. Verify well the time of validity, hourly intensity and program(s) you wish to study, for this there are different modalities of memberships.
The didactic material that you acquire in our study programs is of unique and non-transferable use for you. Any type of free distribution, sale, total or partial copy of this material by any digital or mechanical means is prohibited.  Read copyright and intellectual property rules. 
Video conference tutorials cannot be recorded, rebroadcast, broadcast or shared by students in any type of media. They can only be recorded by our system as it is copyrighted audiovisual material. If you share any material from our classrooms (homework or activities, video tutorials, texts, study manuals, music, scores, or other) you are infringing intellectual property and copyright law and will face criminal and civil prosecution. Read copyright and intellectual property rules. 
Each student is responsible for the management of his or her login user access to our member area and online classrooms within the website, access credentials that cannot be shared with third parties. Misuse of your username may result in the total suspension of your membership and total cancellation of your studies in our classrooms and study programs. Any suspicious login activity may result in temporary or total blocking of your user. If you attempt to connect to our site fraudulently or by using applications that hide your identity, location or breach the security of the platform, your user will be blocked and your membership will be cancelled forever, losing any benefits you have acquired with your study package. 
It is considered a cause for total cancellation of your membership and access to our website the crime of industrial espionage, which is an attempt to seize by any means data, written or electronic documents, computer media or other objects of our online study community for personal or third party benefit. Each member is obliged to maintain confidentiality and to make strictly personal use of our study material, without the right to disseminate, disclose or transfer to third parties any information from our model and study material. This offense will be denounced and prosecuted by the criminal and civil justice system. 
No member may make use of our name and logo without proper authorization. Unauthorized and improper use of images, texts, products, educational content or flutes is understood as such. It is strictly forbidden to alter flute designs for resale without due warning that such alteration is not of the original workshop production standard.  Distribution of our educational products is strictly prohibited.

HONORARY MEMBERSHIP

This special membership is given to a maximum of 10 students per year.
Honorary members are those with scholar founder status for their support and development as dedicated students within our community. People who have decided to invest in this membership to support our community and have certain privileged benefits in their study.
This membership is intended to be for lifetime and will depend on the stability and economic self-sustainability of the study community as well as the demand for its study programs. Every student and scholar founder who decides to support this community initiative is aware of it.
Each year, Lifetime Honorary Members support the community through a maintenance fee—a contribution communicated electronically to each member—which is distinct from and entirely independent of the initial lifetime membership payment. Non-payment of this annual fee may result in the suspension of services, access to classrooms, courses, subscriptions, and other benefits, as well as the application of reinstatement fees for their reactivation.
This membership provides lifetime access to the various study cycles of the Shakuhachi Master Course, subject to the completion and approval policies of each cycle, as well as the terms and conditions of this website.
Subscriptions to tutoring hour plans are not for life and are subject to the terms and conditions of this service.

SHAKUHACHI INSTRUCTOR TRAINING COURSE

The Shakuhachi Instructor Training Course is a version of our Shakuhachi Master Course with an emphasis on preparing qualified teachers who learn our system and method to teach it with fidelity and quality from their own learning experience.
Contact for more information.

MEMBERSHIP UPGRADES

Membership upgrade refers to a change from a lower-tier plan to one with more benefits, never the reverse.
Any membership upgrade is subject to the change of benefits of the new plan and is governed by our terms and conditions regarding study membership plans, certifications, and tutoring hour plan subscription, as well as the benefits listed in each plan.

BLOG USAGE POLICIES

These policies govern the appropriate use of the community blog. By accessing and using this blog, you agree to adhere to the following guidelines:

Purpose of the Blog:
This online space is dedicated to fostering the development of healthy thinking, writing proficiency, and research skills among the students of this community, grounded in the vision, study, and practical application of our established system.

Writer Eligibility:
The privilege of contributing to this blog as a writer is exclusively granted to authorized members and students of this community, as approved by the community administration.

Participation in Feedback and Comments:
To engage in providing feedback or posting comments on published articles, users must be registered members with a valid membership status.

Prohibited Language:
The use of any inappropriate or offensive language is strictly forbidden within this educational and formative environment. Our community is built upon mutual respect and the cultivation of a healthy and familiar atmosphere.

Restrictions on Promotion and External References:
Promotion of other schools, systems, or teachers is not permitted. Similarly, the posting of videos, photos, links, or comments that make reference to them is prohibited. Negative comments regarding any artist or teacher external to this community will also not be accepted.

Consequences of Misuse and Non-Compliance:
Any misuse or inappropriate behavior within this blog space, as well as any failure to comply with the rules and policies of our community, may result in the termination of your participation in the blog and/or the cancellation of your membership.

Student Article Authorship:
All student-authored articles represent their individual research work or the development of activities within their respective academic cycles and will be published under their personal name.

Editorial Review Process:
Every submitted article will undergo review by an editorial committee. This committee reserves the right to authorize publication or to suggest revisions, including improvements to writing and editing, before the author's final submission.

Copyright and intellectual property policy: Please be aware that all quotations, references, or images included within your article must adhere to copyright regulations.

Right of Publication:
The community reserves the right to make the final decision regarding the publication of any submitted article.

Policy Updates:
These policies are subject to updates without prior notice. Users are encouraged to review this document periodically for any changes.

QUALITIES THAT EVERY STUDENT SHOULD CULTIVATE IN OUR SCHOOL

Only those who agree to cultivate these qualities will be able to aspire to or remain as students of our schools.

Respect For the life of every living being, for yourself, for your training partner, for your Master, for the Dojo, your etiquette and what this means, for the arts, your own life and safety. For the property and assets of the other. For what they are.
Gratitude For life, for the air, for the water, for the food, for the teachings, towards God or divine, towards your parents, towards your teacher, towards your family.
Honest, sincere, and authentic with yourself and your intentions in relating to our school, teachers, and fellow practitioners. Only those with an honest heart and open mind can achieve happiness and true knowledge in our school as well as in life itself.
Relationships are built over time, so knowledge flows naturally with authenticity from the source.
Knowing how to listen and interpret Situations, moments, messages, be they hidden, discreet or direct.
Mastery Of your excitement, your emotions, your strength, the moment and its meaning.
Humility for your success, for your accomplishments, for your confidence, for your property or belongings, for whatever.
Service to your dojo, your teacher, your family, your friends, your neighbor and whoever needs it. We are preparing him for that, not to show off his new abilities.
Share your smile, your gifts, your knowledge, your riches, your sadness and happiness, your achievements as a humble and encouraging witness to others. We do not prepare you to share your ego.
Maturity. Understand this as your will and availability to open up to the search for spiritual, physical and mental maturity. You must understand that these three planes must be cultivated and are waiting to be matured correctly with a pure consciousness and without any distortion, no matter how old you are there are always outbreaks of immaturity, ignorance and resistance to change.
Responsibility For the teachings and new knowledge that you acquire, for your skills, for your actions, for your thoughts, for your words as a citizen and within any role you have in this life. Even be responsible for your omission. (The disrespectful, arrogant, greedy, ungrateful, dishonest, lying, malicious, uncontrolled, conceited, vain, useless, petty, immature and irresponsible have no place in our school).

We reserve the right of admission and expulsion.

PRECEPTS THAT EVERY STUDENT MUST FOLLOW AT THIS COMMUNITY

I cultivate my unshakable spirit and an unmovable and sincere heart.
My path will be justice and I will not be an instrument of unhappiness for others.
I respect life in all its expression and cultivate compassionate love.
I watch my thoughts, words, and actions because they lead my habits, character, and destiny.
I respect the teachings and what they represent, teacher, traditions, family, school and colleagues. My knowledge at the service of those who need it and for the perfection of my spirituality in my human experience.

Each member knows and accepts our privacy policies and terms and conditions.

These policies are subject to change without notice. We will inform publicly and through the respective contact channels if any change in our policies has arisen.

Every affiliated person (Member) accepts these rules and clauses without the right to reject or protest, it is the responsibility of each member to read and abide by each and every one of these, ignorance of them does not exonerate any responsibility.