Shabda
Shabda is distributed at the beginning of every month except January and September. Contributions to Shabda often take the form of a personal letter, in which Order members write about things important to them or that they wish the rest of the Order to know about. First-time contributors often include a brief personal introduction, which can be helpful for Order members who don’t know them personally.
In addition to the personal letters section (“reporting-in”) there is a “Noticeboard” section for Order and movement-wide notices and announcements, and links to discussion threads and Dharma articles of interest to the whole Order.
How to receive and read Shabda
Online
Shabda is available to download at the beginning of each month from the Buddhist Centre Online in formats suitable for web browsers, ebooks, and kindles. You will need to register and activate an order account at the Buddhist Centre Online before you can download Shabda.
Download Shabda here
Watch help videos on how to get Order-only access on The Buddhist Centre Online
Print
You can also opt to receive a printed copy of Shabda. This will normally be sent to your nearest Triratna Centre. If you want it delivered elsewhere please contact
shabda@triratnaorder.org
If you live near a centre but prefer to receive it at home by post, there is an annual £25 charge which you can pay by cheque, standing order, online transfer, or by paying online at our Payments page. There is no mailing charge for “outlying” Order members, or if you are elderly or disabled.
Shabda is available to all Order members, regardless of whether their Order contributions are up to date.
How to contribute to Shabda
shabda@triratnaorder.org
Shabda
18 Finch Road
Chipping Sodbury
Bristol
BS37 6JF
UK
Submission Guidelines
The deadline for submissions is the end of the last day of the month preceding publication. All Shabda content is processed as a batch at the beginning of the month, which means that it is not normally possible to include (or edit or withdraw) any material after the deadline.
Please visit thebuddhistcentre.com/order/shabda and log into your Order account to submit your contribution.
If you can only correspond via email, please send it to the email address above. If you can only correspond on paper, please send it to the address above. However, please only use email or paper if you have no other option, as it entails considerable extra manual work to transfer such submissions into the Shabda software for processing.
If you submit more than one report, only the most recent one will be used, so if you wish to change something you have already submitted, you will need to resubmit the complete message. The compiler cannot make changes or corrections for you.
Letters
Shabda is not edited, which means that contributions will go in as submitted. Please ensure that your contribution is in line with the precepts. For practical reasons letters and threads are limited to 1,000 words per person per month. Longer submissions will be truncated without notice. (First time reports, and eulogies relating to recently deceased Order members, are exempt from this limit.) If you need to say more, the best thing to do is submit the next part of your report the following month. Alternatively, please contact the compiler before the deadline to request an exemption.
Notices and advertisements
Items consisting of less than 200 words will not be charged. Items with 200 or more words are charged £20 for each additional 100 words. All advertisements and appeals over 200 words which are not internal Order business or organisational Triratna Buddhist Community business are chargeable.
To minimize the administrative overhead of Shabda, all payments for advertising need to be made at the time of submission, so please make payment when you submit your copy unless other arrangements have been made.
Notices, advertisements, and appeals will be included in all the digital versions of Shabda, but will only be included in paper Shabda when space permits.
Photos
Changes to Shabda delivery option
Changes of address
You can also change your contact details online: log in to your order account at thebuddhistcentre.com then place your cursor over your name at the top of any page and select ‘edit my order account’ to edit your contact information.
How to pay
Please visit our Payments page
Use the following details to pay by bank transfer:
Co-operative Bank, PO Box 250, Skelmersdale, WN8 6WT
Account Name: The Tiratana Trust
Account number: 65124044
Bank sort code: 08-92-99
Please use your order name as reference with all payments.