I have found a way to break that Silence in the morning. Did I attain Nirvana?

“Power on, you have plugged into Nirvana, and your device is ready to pair.” My new device from BOAT tells me this in the morning. My family had a good laugh when they heard that voice for the first time.. At least there is one more male voice as these days I don’t get to hear OK Google or Alexa. It was in those 17 days of travel that one day I decided that I need a speaker which can blast some music for me in the morning.

BOAT says that ” Nirvana is the attainment of complete peace, free from all desires and reaching the state of enlightenment, – and the perfect music has made it easier to connect with souls and be peaceful. The tagline supports – plugging into Peace and Freedom“.

The perfect morning music turned out to be a symphony in my case. I think it was Daniel Pink, in his book “A Whole New Mind”, who had given this idea of listening to a symphony in the morning. The leading benefit was to prime you up for the rest of the day. So there I was ready to experiment.

Over a period of time, I’ve developed a routine. With the fresh coffee in my hand and after a short walk on the balcony it’s time to put on Beethoven’s symphony. This was done on a regular basis. I added one more activity while listening to music. In the last 3 months apart from daily walking with podcasts and intermittent meditation I picked up two more habits. One was transcribing quotes on paper to a digital avatar and the second was listening to a symphony. Transcribing quotes from paper to digital versions was very boring initially. But it picked momentum when I started enjoying the maximum collection of quotes from Oscar Wilde and Mark Twain.

Oscar Wilde was a major English writer and philosopher of the late Victorian period. He is known for his Aesthetic philosophies, witty literature, and queer sexuality. One of his American contemporaries was Mark Twain, one of the most influential American authors in history. Twain’s famous works include his short stories and his novels about Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn.

So in that morning space, apart from becoming fully alive with my cup of coffee and enjoying the breeze on my balcony, in came symphony and quotes. I feel most alive when I get those interesting quotes from both of them. Reading these quotes made me research both of them. I was curious to know if they had met each other. As per the data available ( not verified)

The Twain bio (Ron Powers) says the two ‘spotted and greeted each other in the dining room of a hotel in Bad Nauheim, Germany, in the summer of 1892. Sam’s daughter remembered Wilde sporting a carnation as big as a baby sunflower in his lapel, and coloured shoes on his feet. But no report of sharing a bottle or a joke. . . .”

The best thing I loved about their quotes was brevity and levity or call it symphony ( a harmonious arrangement of words)

There were a lot of instances when I remembered their quotes and here are four of those instances.

Happiness

Recently I heard Amit Tandon’s latest episodes and in that he mentions that we are all born crying and some people haven’t stopped it yet. I see that very often during my travels on flights, in restaurants, and in hotels. The other day somebody was complaining about too much waiting time at the boarding gate. I liked what Amit Tandon said, ” I don’t complain at the airport because I have not forgotten the railway station”. What a nice reminder.

These words make us look back at our life. It made me remember a set of people who had come into my life. It includes naysayers, negative mindset-oriented people who can corrode the environment and there were moments when I wished to get out of that situation. So when I saw these golden words below I had a good laugh…How relatable

“Some cause happiness wherever they go; others, whenever they go.”— Oscar Wilde

Age

A couple of days back my wife was talking about age and it’s pretty common sometimes when I am with my mother and in-laws they talk about age. At some point in time, we all will talk about age. My grandfather used to proudly talk about his age I remembered when he was in his 90s. When and why do we talk about age? I guess it is when physically we get a little burdened when our body parts do not move at our command and mentally when things seem overwhelming, maybe I am sharing from my personal experience and with my acquaintances. So I was trying to crack this quote below :

“Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter.” – MarkTwain

My internet research provided me with these inputs

Is age just a state of mind? In a 2009 study called “Marketing to Seniors: Age Really is the State of Mind,” researchers found that seniors who are psychologically younger have more positive attitudes toward life satisfaction and aging than those who are cognitively older. Cognitive age is the age you feel and that has been scientifically measured. After you grow as an adult, the age is just not a number, but a mindset.” “Once you grow as an adult, the age is just not a number, but a mindset.” It’s commonplace to find people who look old at forty or young at sixty. I have seen this in our family as well.

Heaven vs Hell

I had the opportunity to meet and know a lot of professional people and friends in my life. If I have to draw a through-line and see which are the people whom I remember the most I will pick all the mischievous ones who had given me company when I was in those dark places. To me heaven and hell are environments and both have a big influence on who you are. Heaven to me was my professional network and hell has been all my relationships with whom I can speak my mind and I can laugh out loud by using all the cuss words. In fact, the other day, I was having my noise cancellation headset so I was not aware of the intensity of it as I was laughing out loud along with it. I liked the way Mark Twain captured it.

“Go to heaven for the climate, hell for the company” – Mark Twain

Advice

As parents, we are at a point in life where we are sandwiched between two generations. One before us and one after us. Our parents continue to give us advice and we try to advise our children. So when I am in my hometown there is one thing that I follow to pay heed to my mother’s advice. After all, we have aged with that advice. There were so many instances when by default I was turning to ” During our time …”. Now when I want to give advice to children these days I hold back, in my head I run a quick simulation and decide to pass it on to ether.

“The only thing to do with good advice is to pass it on. It is never of any use to oneself” – Oscar Wilde

Hearing classic music and getting the opportunity to transcribe and re-read those Wilde and Twain quotes made me break the silence and prepare for the day. I saw these lines below during my research and it gave me a classical chill.

“Symphony starts when you walk together, feel the heartbeats and understand the unspoken words.” “Each day we draft a new movement in our symphony of life; what melody will you compose today?” “One note does not make a symphony; one artist does not make an orchestra.”

My mood is set when my BOAT device is ready to power off by the time I get to work. So did I attain ” Nirvana” in those morning hours? Nirvana in Buddhism means realising and accepting the Four Noble Truths and being awake to reality. Hence morning symphony helps me get ready to face ‘Real Activities” planned for the day.