Butler Buddhists ordained as roshis, or teachers
After years of listening to and giving dharma talks relating to Buddhist philosophy, David Wuchina, of Connoquenessing, officially became a teacher with the Butler sangha, a local Buddhist cohort, on Wednesday evening, June 25.
Wuchina and Chan Lauricia, of Butler, who has been with the Butler sangha for about five years, both accepted the precepts of Buddhism, which are teachings meant to develop a person’s mind on the path to enlightenment.
Wuchina said that although he doesn’t intend to lead his own sangha, he already leads talks and meditations with the Butler group, so being ordained as a roshi, it mostly just furthered his commitment to following Buddhist teachings.
“As an educator, I’ve always been interested in learning and listening,” he said. “I probably listen to a talk or two every week. I present dharma talks a few times a month.”
The ceremony was unusual in that it was a public ordination of two Butler Buddhists as roshi, or teachers — it’s an event that typically takes place in small, private ceremonies. The roshi ordination took place at 6 p.m. Wednesday in the Holly Pointe building in Butler, and included a sound healing demonstration by another roshi of the Butler sangha, Cynthia Marshall.
Marshall started the ceremony by performing a sound healing demonstration, where she created tones with standing bells to create a relaxing environment to help the people in attendance reflect on the Buddhist precepts. With the lights dim and the dozen or so people in attendance quiet, the tones of the bells enveloped the room as Marshall asked that people turn their attention inward.
“Just as the lotus blossom is not wet by the water that surrounds it, the mind is immaculate and beyond dust,” Marshall said as she carried on the standing bell tones.
Marshall then read 10 precepts to Lauricia and Wuchina, who accepted each by responding with “I will.” The precepts include vowing to not kill, not lie, not misuse sex, not steal and not indulge in intoxicants, which Wuchina pointed out are similar to teachings by other religions.
Following the reading of the precepts, Marshall placed rakusus on Lauricia and Wuchina, which are vests that display a Buddhist’s “street cred.”
“They can go all over the world and all Buddhists know what they mean,” Marshall said, “about who they have studied under.”
Wuchina’s rakusu is brown, and on the back of it are images of a turtle, a symbol of wisdom; and other Zen symbols representing wisdom and harmony. Lauricia’s rakusu also had a turtle on the back and a symbol for wisdom. Both Wuchina and Lauricia are longtime members of the Butler sangha.
Marshall said people may have been surprised at the brevity of the ceremony, which only took about 15 minutes. She said, however, that each of the men’s journeys to become roshi took time.
“The ceremony is short, but the learning takes a long, long time,” Marshall said.
While the Butler sangha is an intimate group made up of about a dozen regular attendees of its activities, Marshall said anyone is welcome to join the group at its meditation sessions or its dharma talks.
Meditation is what brought Lauricia and Wuchina to the Butler sangha in the first place. Lauricia said that even after attending sessions with the Butler sangha for about five years, there is still so much to discuss when it comes to the teachings of Buddha and Buddhist philosophy.
“We do some meditation, then we usually read a dharma passage, talk about Buddhist philosophy, kind of engage with each other in that way and delve into conceptual ideas when it comes to Buddhism,” he said of the monthly sessions. “They say the Buddha taught 84,000 different dharma teachings, so it’s a lot. It’s an endless amount.”
Regular attendance at Butler sangha talks and meditations is what led the two new roshi to be ordained Wednesday, with Lauricia saying that the dharma talks taught him a lot about how to teach others to follow a path toward enlightenment.
“That’s a big part of the training as well, is we’ve been doing talks in that group leading up to this,” Lauricia said. “They’re important teachings about compassion, innerconnectedness — I think that’s what originally attracted me to (Buddhism).”
Wuchina said he enjoys pondering the teachings and lessons of Buddhism, and they do not interfere with his beliefs as a Presbyterian. He said the similarities between the Buddhist precepts and the teachings of the Presbyterian church line up, and people of any religion also can follow Buddhism and take lessons from dharma talks.
“I think the best thing we can do is bring faiths together,” Wuchina said. “All these wisdom trees teach similar things.”
The Butler sangha has public meetings at 6 p.m. the third Thursday of each month at the Holly Pointe building, 220 S. Main St. in Butler, which consist of dharma talks and meditation. Marshall also offers a serious study group that meets from 5:15 to 6:15 p.m. on Wednesdays at the Holly Pointe. To become a member of the group, a person must display a strong desire to learn the dharma. The roshis of the Butler sangha also can invite members to join, according to a letter by Marshall.
