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Laura A. Cole tweeted that Turner’s song “What’s Love “The more you chant, the more you become liberated,
Got to Do With It” taught her “that I could change my mentally,” Turner said in the 2021 HBO documentary
mind and my path on a dime if the life I was living no “Tina,” during a scene that featured a voice-over of
longer served me or even actively harmed me.” her reciting Buddhist prayers.

Cole continued: “SHE introduced me to Buddhism and “I started seeing my life — I started really seeing that
the peace of meditation.” I had to make a change,” Turner continued in the film,
recalling the effect chanting had on her life. “I started
Turner was introduced to Buddhism by multiple to become much more confident. I mean, not even
people throughout the early 1970s. But it was a caring what Ike thought about me — becoming less
woman whom Ike Turner had brought to the studio afraid of him.”
one day who convinced the singer to start practicing.
The woman, Valerie Bishop, was a member of the Soka Her introduction to Buddhism also came shortly
Gakkai community, a form of Nichiren Buddhism, after she attempted suicide by overdosing on Valium,
which is active throughout West Los Angeles, near Turner told USA Today in 2020. “Buddhism literally
where the Turners lived and recorded music. That saved my life,” she said.
was according to Taro Gold, co-author of Turner’s
2020 spiritual memoir, “Happiness Becomes You,” who “When she found her spirituality, when she found
was interviewed in 2021 by the Ho Center for Buddhist Buddhism, that unlocked something inside of her,”
Studies at Stanford University. “Tina” co-director T.J. Martin said in a 2021 interview
with “PBS NewsHour.” “I think that gave her a sense of
The Grammy-winning singer, who grew up Baptist, confidence that she was always searching for.”
eventually transitioned from reciting “The Lord’s
Prayer” to chanting the basic prayer within Nichiren While she struggled to regain momentum in her
Buddhism, “nam-myoho-renge-kyo,” which translates to career after leaving Ike Turner, often working in Las
devotion to the mystic law of cause and effect. Members Vegas showrooms and on the cabaret circuit, Turner’s
of Soka Gakkai customarily chant the prayer twice a day, constant performing and her faith had “kept her sane,”
according to Martin. EH
morning and evening, in part to manifest things in their
lives, such as happiness or other goals.