{"id":35620,"date":"2020-07-31T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-07-31T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nalandabodhi.org\/?p=35620"},"modified":"2026-04-22T11:14:22","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T18:14:22","slug":"monty-python-and-the-four-reminders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nalandabodhi.org\/nl\/2020\/07\/31\/monty-python-and-the-four-reminders\/","title":{"rendered":"Monty Python and the Four Reminders"},"content":{"rendered":"
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When I was a teenager in the 70s, we watched the Monty Python TV show. There was usually a moment when out of nowhere a weird blast of French horns and a booming voice from the clouds would announce, \u201cAnd now for something completely different!\u201d Buddhism teaches you every moment is like that. By the time you\u2019ve announced it, you\u2019re onto something else, something new.<\/p>

Dharma teachings don\u2019t give me answers. They teach me how to live with questions, how to hold a question lightly without trying to squeeze the truth out of it. There\u2019s a sense of ease, a constant curiosity about this ever-present collection of ideas I\u2019ve gotten so accustomed to calling \u201cmy life.\u201d Because the teachings on impermanence remind me this life is constantly shifting into something completely different.<\/p>

In my twenties I was perpetually embroiled in drama, convinced I could never be happy. In my thirties, I spent a lot of time blissed out on meditation and motherhood. In my forties I experienced a deep depression, a year of chronic fatigue, and later, two years of debilitating chronic pain. At fifty, things looked amazingly bright again.<\/p>

Likewise, from decade to decade my mother, father, and brothers, my children and grandchildren, have gotten sick then felt better after a time. Or they worried themselves silly for a while, then saw the humor and lightened up. Some got sick and didn\u2019t get better. Some got worried and stayed worried. And so it goes.<\/p>

Each new change is so fresh, so engaging, and yet a sunny sky always gives way to the next shocking storm. One moment of embarrassing thoughtlessness is soon replaced by the next spontaneous moment of kindness. What remains constant is my gratitude to be able to practice meditation while remembering family and friends. I turn to this habit to stay grounded when tough changes occur.<\/p>

As the years pass, opportunities to respond to grief and loss have arisen more often. At these times it helps to have a habit of considering the four reminders given by the Buddha to his students \u2014 to remember the preciousness of this human life which will end one day, to recall that birth and death are as fleeting as a movie or a flash of lightning, to remember we reap what we sow in this life, and to realize diligent effort is necessary to end our suffering.<\/p>

Due to the good fortune of encountering dharma teachings, I can see my family\u2019s and my own challenges as workable. It\u2019s possible to appreciate our very human losses as poignantly bittersweet, not merely tragic.<\/p>

Seeing each moment as innocent and on its way out, helps me recognize the rare qualities to be found in every aspect of my life and the lives of those I love. It is a view that keeps prodding me to practice, to remember again and again that right now is always Something Completely Different.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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First published Sept 29, 2011 on the now-inactive book tour site, rebelbuddha.com: <\/em>
http:\/\/www.rebelbuddha.com\/2011\/09\/monty-python-and-the-four-reminders\/<\/a><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\"Ceci\n\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCeci Miller\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
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Ceci Miller has been a student of Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche since 2009. She is a book editor and author. Through CeciBooks publishing consultancy, she helps authors and experts develop their work and expand its beneficial impact. A mother and grandmother, Ceci lives with her husband in Seattle, Washington.\u200b<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Buddhist teaching in a 70s TV show? Looking back over half a lifetime through the lens of the Four Reminders.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":35646,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[3009],"tags":[3412,3418,3417,3405],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nMonty Python and the Four Reminders - Nalandabodhi International<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A Buddhist teaching in a 70s TV show? 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