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

Sharing thirty years’ experience as a Zen practitioner and teacher, Hamilton offers a variety of practical tools for Zen training to a wide audience. By practising to untrain our inner parrot , we learn to quiet down - and not take so seriously - ongoing habitual mental chatter. In addition to helpful techniques for learning Zen practice, the author also presents what’s at the heart of Zen - waking up to one’s daily experience - in a clear, accessible, lighthearted, and humorous style. It’s a usable manual for exploring and establishing a beginning sitting practice and includes simple instructions to clarify and elucidate the basics such as: how to develop physical, mental, and emotional awareness of one’s mind and actions; how to experience open awareness - the objectivity of observing oneself in practice while allowing for a sense of spaciously accommodating whatever occurs; and how to understand and experience the esoteric Zen concept of full-empty awareness - a full appreciation of the primordial nature of all, which is the result of meditation.