Untrain Your Parrot: And Other No-nonsense Instructions on the Path of Zen

by Elizabeth Hamilton

This book offers exercises, instructions, jokes, stories, pithy quotes, and—most of all—encouragement to anyone interested in exploring Zen but who may find traditional presentations severe or intimidating. Hamilton writes with an easygoing, friendly style that invites readers of all backgrounds to sit down and give meditation a try. But don’t be fooled by her puns and checklists—this is serious Zen.

Drawing on three decades of experience as a Zen practitioner and teacher, Hamilton explains how to meditate and how to maintain an ongoing practice. From there, in her clear, lighthearted, and humorous style, she moves right to the heart of Zen, showing us how we could move beyond our concepts, expectations, and emotional reactivity to touch the reality of our lived experience with openness and simplicity, thereby finding freedom.

Untrain Your Parrot includes simple instructions to clarify and elucidate the

   •  how to establish a beginning meditation practice
   •  how to develop physical, mental, and emotional awareness
   •  how to experience "open" awareness—observing one's practice while allowing for a sense of spaciousness with whatever occurs


For more information on the author, Elizabeth Hamilton, go to www.zencentersandiego.org.

Genres: Buddhism, Philosophy, Meditation

224 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2007

About the author

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Reviews

[Sarah Sheard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just when I'd reached Zen Buddhism fatigue, I came across this book on a remainder table and was caught by its title. What a totally delightful, sage, memorable, playfully insightful read! I re-read pages of it whenever I need a hit of her wizz. She writes in a refreshingly urban way about spiritual matters which I find utterly refreshing. She doesn't sound like a Zen Roshi. She sounds like a woman who's done the hard hours on the meditation cushion required to have earned these insights and then put them in her own voice. I hope she writes another book some day.

[Jason · Rating 2 out of 5]

I try to avoid writing negative reviews. But after reading a couple reviews of this book by those new to Zen, I feel the need to say something: This is not representative of what Zen really has to offer. PLEASE don’t be discouraged! Keep looking, there are plenty of good books out there.
I’ll elaborate further because this book has the misfortune of being the straw that broke the camel’s back. It exemplifies a problem I have with a large subsection of American Zen in general. It’s becoming something distinctly different from traditional Zen. Whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing is too much to get into here; suffice to say I personally find no value in much of it. I think it would be great if this whole movement would just get on with calling itself something other than Zen.
Because, let’s be honest, this is not Zen; it barely even resembles it. While the word is in the title and some of the buzzwords of Zen are used throughout, I’d classify this more in the pop-psychology/mindfulness genre. A lot of it is based around the currently popular idea that Zen (and Buddhism in general) falls short in addressing the emotional aspect of life and that pop-psychology is needed to balance that out. I find that the more an author prescribes to this idea, the less value the book has to my practice.
I’m also deeply confused by the “no-nonsense” claim in the title. There is an overabundance of wordy, flowery language (aka nonsense). For an example, I only had to open to a random page: “Diligent, sometimes dogged, practice eventually fertilizes the field where the seeds of perseverance and inspiration are nestled. As enthusiasm is rekindled, enlivenment can emerge phoenixlike from burnout’s ashes, transmuting burnout into burning aspiration.” The book is rife with these sort of mixed metaphor new age-isms.
Then there’s the sheer number of exercises; truly a testament to the monkey-mind. Besides the aforementioned use of Zen terminology, I fail to see what most exercises have to do with Zen. It concerns me that the author has no qualms with presenting this as if it is actually Zen practice.
I almost feel bad throwing this in the donation bin.

[Kathryn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have now read this book full of helpful hints on being Zen; actually, it would be more accurate to say that I began this book at the first word and continued to the last word, because in my limited capacity I have to say that I did not understand this book.

After a short forward by Rosa Parks (yes, that Rosa Parks), the book is set up in eight parts. Those parts are The Approach, The Physical Dimension of Heartmind, The Open Awareness Dimension of Heartmind, The Mental Dimension of Heartmind, Identity: A Subset of the Mental Dimension of Heartmind, Loving-Kindness: Awakening the Seeds of Heartmind, The Emotional Dimension of Heartmind, and The Full-Empty Dimension of Heartmind. Obviously, Heartmind and Dimension are very important in this book, and throughout, the author gives personal examples of these concepts. The author has a very engaging style, but by the time I was done with the book I was doubting my ability to connect words together into thoughts.

I really have no desire to go Buddhist, or Zen, being fairly happy with my Roman Catholic mindset, which does not block any other mindsets out (love God and love others being the basics). And I am sure that this book would be a great resource for someone seriously exploring Zen. But this book was not for me, which is a failure of me, not of the book.

[Tamra · Rating 1 out of 5]

The writing style* made my head hurt, which made me cranky, which made me want to kick something. I'm pretty sure that that's not very Zen. I checked a few other places and it looks like Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind is one of the basic texts, so I'm going to try that instead.

* Examples:

"Without the laser eye of practice, our burning aspiration can slowly sink, taking our buoyant spirit with it. If our first thought on hearing this is 'What buoyant spirit?' burnout's soot may already be tarnishing our vision."

or

"The likelihood of experiencing inside out increases as our senses are revitalized. Formerly mystifying phrases - like letting-be, non-doing, surrender, and silence - start to literally 'make sense."

[Lynn · Rating 2 out of 5]

Elizabeth Hamilton is my other teacher at the San Diego Zen Center. She is incredibly smart and compassionate. Unfortunately I didn't feel like her book flowed easily. I had a hard time staying focused when reading it. It was sprinkled with too many quotes, metaphors, and famous name dropping for my taste. She's clearly a good writer, however, in the end it just didn't grab me.

[Anna]

I was kind of enjoying this book each time I got into it but unfortunately it had an amazingly soporific effect; every time I picked it up I was asleep within a couple of pages. After several weeks by my bedside I had to put it aside half finished. But the bits I did read and remember were interesting...

[Jenny · Rating 3 out of 5]

I started out liking this book, and learned a few meditation techniques, but I found towards the end it became more and more elliptical and trying too hard to relate to contemporary conceits. It made me want to read an old school Buddhist text like Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind by Suzuki.

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow, so much to do with this book. Okay, okay...I read it...did I do all the meditations? Ummmmm, nope. I had great INTENTIONS! It sat by my chair for the longest time. Oh, maybe summer reading...medition!

[Gemini · Rating 3 out of 5]

I basically started out liking this book, but by the end I was more uninterested & I just didn't connect with what the author was saying.

[Jenny · Rating 2 out of 5]

I leave this book wondering whether zen practice isn't the right cup of tea for me or if I simply didn't care for the author's areligious, metaphor-heavy approach to describing it.