Tina Malia: Heart Wide Open
Finally, Jai, my friend, came to me and you know he saw me in this state of despair for quite a while, and he asked me, he said, “Hey Tina, have you ever tried doing japa mantra?” I said, “No, I don’t know what that is,” and he said, “It’s really easy,” and he had a mala, I’m sure all of you have seen, you know these necklaces, these malas, and they’re a tool. They’re beautiful. They’re tools; he said: “It’s really easy, you put it in between your hands and every time you pass a bead you chant this mantra.” I chant the mantra ram, that was what was given to me by my teacher,” and it’s just love, it just means god and love, and you’re just calling out to the divine, and he said, “You should maybe try it, it might help you.”
I started this practice with nothing else to lose and nothing else to do because all of my books, everything I had done in the past, even singing, music, nothing was working for me anymore and I was just in this constant state of despair. I started doing this mantra repetition and after, you know, many hours that day and then the next day and then weeks and then months, and it was through this practice that I was completely healed, completely lifted out of this deep state of despair.
So, I say that mantra saved my life and it’s true, it is something that saved my life. It didn’t just pull me out of this despair; it filled me with the feeling that I was so desperately looking for all over planet Earth. All of the spiritual teachings that all of us read, from every teacher, from all over the world, what do they always say? It’s found within, well what if you don’t know how to find it within? What if you don’t know what that tool is? That’s what mantra is; it’s a tool. It’s like giving you a shovel so that you can go internally, and you can dig beautiful sacred tool.
Kara Johnstad: So Tina your story deeply touched me that I had to think of the word sound mind, sound body, making a sound decision, how sound literally can start to get every single cell in our heart and our mind, vibrating in harmony. I thought it was very precious how you spoke about being in a night of the soul and having not only singing, but the practice of japa mantra helped to heal you, make you whole.
Anahata is the title of your newest album, and it’s also the fourth chakra of the seven main chakras. Located directly in the heart, a Sanskrit word, I found it interesting that Anahata also means unstruck, unbeaten, unhurt. Why did you choose to name the album Anahata? What does it mean to you?
Tina Malia: I think you just said it even better than I would’ve said it.
It’s exactly that; it’s that sense of purity of the heart, just that. The sense of purity, and like you said, unstruck before it’s touched and tarnished, how we are in our true nature.
Kara Johnstad: I like from the Anahata album, music called Moola Mantra, would you like to share a few words before we go into that title?
Tina Malia: This is really, this is a beautiful mantra. It’s a real calming and bringing a sense of peace, and as all of these mantras, the point of all of them as you will start to study a bit about them, all of them is different angles, allows you to come to the end of suffering.
Kara Johnstad: Tina is here with us in studio today, so Tina, you’re speaking a lot, or you’re sharing with us very much exactly what I wanted to ask you actually, you know the world can be harsh at times, we have some challenges that we need to face as part of just being on the Earth, being human and it’s very natural for us to close down in order to survive. I was just curious, do you have a daily ritual, a daily ritual of course of mantra, that helps you stay with an open heart and that beautiful presence that you have.
Tina Malia: You know, as I mentioned at the beginning of this, of this interview, so Jai Uttal is the person who gave me this mantra and my daily practice and his teacher was Neem Karoli Baba, so this was Neem Karoli Baba’s, pretty much his only teaching. You know, he would say chant ram. He didn’t have books, he didn’t have discourses, and he would say that all of your questions will be answered there.
Like I said, having had this practice now for many years, I can say that that is very true for me as well that it stops all the questions and it stops all of the searchings for everything else because they say that mantra is another form of silence.
Kara Johnstad: Tina Malia, it’s just a beautiful journey to be here with you today, and I’d like to have you know this, Francis from Assisi is attributed to saying that to sing is to pray twice, do you feel that singing is a form of prayer?
Tina Malia: Absolutely, no I’m completely on board with that. You know, and it’s a choice too, of course, you can sing anything you want to, and if you– what I have found, and that’s why I’ve dedicated my life this direction is when you choose to use your voice to sing prayers in whatever. The language you choose, to or even if it’s humming if it has that prayerful quality to it. What do we mean by prayerful? Well everything from, a sense of gratitude, a sense of healing, and hope, all of these feelings that when there’s that intention behind it, sometimes the sound itself creates that, you don’t even have to do it with your mind. The sound itself can be so beautiful that it stops the mind and brings those feelings and qualities to you.
There’s that intention, and again, that’s why I love chanting the mantra, and I love doing sacred music and conscious music, it– like you were talking about earlier, it does create this vibrational field, and we are made of water. It does tune the water in our bodies to those frequencies. I’ll share with you all my secrets, Kara. Anything you want to know.
Kara Johnstad: Yes, yes, yes.
Tina Malia: I don’t have a lot, honestly. My first and foremost I’ve already shared, so my second secret, I think the most important thing is diet. I find that my body, my vessel, is very, sensitive to everything I put into it and it took me a long time to figure that out.
We are not taught that in the West, how what we eat not only affects our physical health but affects our mental health almost first and foremost, so I’m very careful with that. I’m very aware of what I put into my body; I’m vegetarian, I have also found for my reasons that any very heavy foods really create a heavy mindset for me as well. They create heaviness in a body, everything; caffeine, I’m very conscious of what I do so that I keep, I like to stay in a state of wellbeing like you were saying before. So that’s a very important one for me, is health. I love cooking; I love food. I love medicinal foods, so that’s my secret life. A lot of people kind of joke with me that they know me as a cook, because like the world thinks you’re a singer, but you’re a cook.
I’m very, very into art, so anything that has to do with art, and I love the Earth, so I do woodworking, I have all these kind of separate art projects, and they are really what keeps me healthy.
Kara Johnstad: So, what is your Sadhana or your practice look like when you’re on tour when you get so busy, what do you make sure that you get done so that you can stay in balance with all your things going on?
Tina Malia: After so many years of doing japa meditation, I was saying earlier in that story, for the first few weeks, it didn’t have much effect on me. Then after months, and after years, now it’s something that if I get a little frazzled and I feel myself get frazzled, all I have to do is put myself in time out. I close my eyes and touch into that well, or into the well-trodden path of that practice, and within moments I’m right there again. Kind of goes back to what I’m doing, but that is what keeps me together in every part of my life.
Continue to Page 3 of the Interview with Tina Malia
