Parents cluster in small groups outside of Hoover Elementary School in Mt. Lebanon chatting about upcoming Girl Scout events, scheduling play dates and PTA functions. I am fielding a question that has been directed toward me a number of times before: "Why isn't your head shaved?" On a cold Pittsburgh day, the answer seems unnecessary, but when the weather is more temperate, a more elaborate response seems appropriate. My answer has nothing to do with the weather, though.

A few years ago, Mt. Lebanon Magazine published "Now and Zen," a feature on Mountain Wind Zen Meditation, which meets at the Unitarian Universalist Church on Wednesday evenings. As the resident instructor of that Zen group coupled with the talks that I have given at the Mt. Lebanon Library and the Franciscan Spirit and Life Center, as well as my published articles on Buddhism and meditation in local magazines such as Point of Light, I have become the Buddhist Monk Posterboy of Mt. Lebanon. I often find myself fielding a litany of questions about Buddhism.

So here are a few answers.

THE BUDDHIST FAQ SHEET

"Why isn't your head shaved?" A person doesn't have to shave one's head to be a Buddhist or even a Monk. The practice goes beyond outward appearances and is concerned more with developing sustained mindfulness -- waking up, as we say in Zen -- and generating limitless compassion for all sentient beings.

"Do you live in a monastery?" No, I live on Dillon Drive with my wife and two children. I have spent time at a number of monasteries, but I sleep, eat and work in Mt. Lebanon.

"Can monks marry?" Some monks in Japan are married even when they live at a monastery. A number of abbots of Buddhist temples in America including my teacher, Venerable Shih Ying-Fa, Abbot of CloudWater Zendo in Cleveland, are married as well.

"Do you spend all of your time meditating?" Actually I do seated meditation about one hour a day, but I spent most of my day teaching T'ai Chi Chuan and being a husband and a father.

"Isn't T'ai Chi a martial art and doesn't that go against the peaceful tenets of Buddhism?" One of the greatest misperceptions of Buddhism is that practitioners in the effort to be compassionate to everyone will allow themselves to be mistreated or abused. A key vow for Buddhist practice is to work to protect all sentient creatures, which includes oneself. But T'ai Chi is also a martial art that responds to the other person's aggression -- and not ones own -- and to defend oneself is to show the other person how pointless such aggression is.

"Is the Buddha a god?" Buddha actually refers to "awakened one," and the historical Buddha was a Prince from India who realized his "Buddha nature" -- the capacity that all people have to be fully aware and whole. The Buddha was a person, and he was not the first Buddha nor the last, but rather the first in this world who decided to teach others how to become awake.

"Do you have to be a Buddhist to come to the Wednesday group or to learn how to meditate?" Buddhist practice is non-sectarian. It does not conflict with or contradict any other religion. Meditation is an excellent way to deepen any spiritual practice. All faiths are welcome to visit and learn about Buddhism and meditation.

After all, Buddhist practice isn't about adhering to any "isms." The essence of the practice is about moving beyond doctrines in order to experience things for ones self and to penetrate the veil that inhibits us from being in the real world, waking up, and being compassion.

While I am always happy to answer these questions, being the representative "Buddhist" can be disconcerting -- especially since there are numerous versions of Buddhist practice in the world (Theravadan, Ch'an, Zen, Tibetan, and many derivatives therein) and at least 376 million Buddhists in the world.

Shouldering the responsibility as the "token" Buddhist sometimes serves as a poignant reminder of the vitality of the practice especially when I do a small favor like mow my neighbor's small front yard or help him hang his deck blinds. My neighbor Bob will often say with a smirk, "It is good living next to a Buddhist."

I always smile and say it was nothing.

For a Buddhist, it is nothing. To give of one's self without conditions and without any expectations is a vital aspect of the Buddhist practice since its inception 2,600 years under the shade of a Bodhi tree.

THE PATH TO BUDDHISM

Around 575 B.C., an Indian Prince named Siddhartha Gautama realized his essential nature and at that point he became a "Buddha," which literally means "Awakened One." Despite the near impossibility of conveying to others the experience of "Enlightenment" in words, Siddhartha decided that he would embark upon the path of teaching others the way to enlightenment as well. The essence of his teaching -- called the Dharma -- boils down to four main points known as "The Four Noble Truths":

1) There is suffering in life.

2) Suffering is caused by craving, grasping desire.

3) It is possible to bring this suffering to an end.

4) The path to the cessation of suffering is the Noble Eightfold Path: (Right Understanding, Right Intention, Right Speech, Right Action, Right Livelihood, Right Effort, Right Mindfulness, Right Concentration).

Many people have misinterpreted the first Noble truth as a nihilistic or pessimistic worldview, but in actuality the Buddha was referring to the fact that pain in our lives is inevitable: birth, death, sickness, disease, heartache, and the like are all marks of our human condition.

In this light, the Buddha's perspective is realistic, but at the same time he offers a solution to bringing such suffering to an end by realizing that it is our own thinking and craving (I don't want to die, for example) that exacerbates suffering.

Like an overtired child whose mood goes from bad to worse when the object of desire (candy, a toy, ice cream) is withheld, our suffering is compounded when our own desires and images do not match our reality. Wanting more or something different than what we already have is the suffering delineated in the second Noble Truth.

To end suffering is the essential practice of Buddhism embodied in meditation, ethical conduct, and sustained effort and concentration, which are the same methods employed and taught for the last 2,600 years.

INTEGRATING LIVING AND PRACTICE

It wasn't the Buddha but rather the American Transcendentalist writer and thinker Henry David Thoreau that set me along the path of Buddhism. Thoreau's famous proclamation in "Walden" that he wished to "live deep and suck out the marrow of life" resonated strongly for me when I was a young teenager, and it was Thoreau's proclamation that many people "live lives of quiet desperation" that prompted me to walk away from a full-time academic career to seek the integration of my personal, spiritual and private life.

The answer was starting Still Mountain, my T'ai Chi school. T'ai Chi, the ancient Chinese form of exercise that combines deep breathing, sustained mindfulness and slow, controlled movements, has a deep connection with Buddhism: in Ch'an (Zen) temples in China, where it has been practiced for nearly 2000 years, T'ai Chi is sometimes known as "moving meditation" and is used to enhance awareness.

While T'ai Chi fits neatly within Buddhist spiritual practice, it also serves as a vehicle for me to extend compassion to others both through classes and by donating workshops and seminars to groups and organizations that might not otherwise have access to or be able to afford T'ai Chi -- deeply valuable programs such as the Dean Ornish program at Allegheny General, the Gilda's Club of Western Pennsylvania, UPMC's Cancer Caring Center, the National Hemophilia Foundation, Shepherd Wellness Center, and the general populace on World T'ai Chi Day.

I would be remiss not to mention that I make a living teaching T'ai Chi and that all of my services are not donated.

There are fees for T'ai Chi classes, private instruction and physical rehabilitation, as well as the management retreats, employee health programs, corporate wellness program, and my consulting with businesses on how to integrate Buddhist principles and Zen Management Techniques into their mission to enhance the overall success of a company.

The point, though, is to maintain a balance between financial success and service to others, in keeping with what the historical Buddha espoused as the principle of the "Middle Way," an ideal equilibrium that serves as the most fertile foundation for the growth of spiritual reflection and mindful awareness. As Shih Ying-Fa, my teacher in Cleveland, always says, "You have to fill your rice bowl," which translates into finding the means to support a family and pay a mortgage.

But being concerned only with one's rice bowl misses the mark. Success should not be looked upon as the fulfillment of a goal -- since such fulfillment is transitory -- but rather as the opportunity to enable others to find harmony, health, and well-being.

For over four years, my family and I have lived in Mt. Lebanon, but for much longer than that, I have sought to be more fully awake in all that I do -- teaching T'ai Chi, watching a movie with my family, cooking dinner, walking the dogs, washing the dishes, and chatting over the fence with my neighbors Bob and Lee.

My life as a Buddhist is no more or less than making every moment a continuous act of sustained meditative awareness. As Lin-Chi, the famous ninth-century Chinese Zen master, once remarked to his students, "Followers of the Way, the Dharma of the buddhas calls for no special undertakings. Just act ordinary, without trying to do anything particular. Move your bowels, urinate, get dressed, eat your rice, and if you get tired, then lie down. Fools may laugh at me, but wise men will know what I mean."

To be awake is to penetrate into all things, and to discover therein the skillful means to help others in their pursuit of a life of value and happiness.

So my head is not shaved, but that hardly matters when the goal itself is living life with fullness and completeness and serenity. Sometimes, though, I am tempted to answer the question "Why isn't your head shaved?" as if it were a Koan -- a Zen puzzle that cannot be answered in language like Zen Master Hakuin's famous "What is the sound of one hand clapping?"

"Why isn't your head shaved?"

"Moss doesn't always grow on the northern face of the tree."