“Grief Attack” Quick Fix – Four Anchors to Ground Grief with Amitabha Mantra and Pureland Dharani meditation and chanting
Does grief ambush you? That sudden, crushing panic that makes it feel like you’re in hell? This is a “Grief Attack,” and this powerful “Quick Fix” practice is here to help.
Join us for a special session from Buddha Weekly, where we use the profound and compassionate practices of the Padma Family—centered on Amitabha Buddha, the Caregiver Buddha—to meet grief head-on. This isn’t about suppressing your feelings, but transforming them.
What you’ll experience in this video
- Understanding the Grief Attack: We’ll look at the “Six Realms of Grief” from a Buddhist perspective, helping you recognize the different forms grief can take and understand it as a passing, impermanent condition.
- Applying Immediate “Quick Fix” Anchors: Learn powerful, practical steps to calm the body’s panic response, including:
- Taking Refuge: Finding support in the Three Jewels.
- Physical Grounding: Using sensory anchors to stabilize your nervous system.
- Guru Rinpoche’s Triad of Non-Fabrication: A simple yet profound method to relax the body, speech, and mind.
- Visualization: The powerful imagery of Amitabha Buddha and the peacock, teaching us to transform our suffering into compassion.
Video:
Chanting for Peace and Transformation
We’ll guide you through the sacred chants, including the Amitabha Heart Mantra (Om Ami Deva Hrih) and the Rebirth Dharani (Pureland Dharani). These ancient mantras are renowned for removing karmic obstacles, bringing immediate tranquility, and guiding us (and our loved ones) toward peace.
Video:
Whether you are actively mourning or are suddenly struck by a lingering sadness, this practice provides a gentle, supportive, and powerful tool to help you through the storm. Remember, feelings are impermanent. As the great teacher Thich Nhat Hanh taught, a cloud never truly dies; it simply transforms.
📌 TIMESTAMPS
0:00 – Introduction: What is a Grief Attack?
2:19 – Buddhist Perspective: Dukkha and Impermanence
5:16 – The Six Realms of Grief
10:15 – 1st Quick Fix Anchor: Taking Refuge
11:28 – 2nd Quick Fix Anchor: Meditating on Impermanence
12:29 – 3rd Quick Fix Anchor: Physical Grounding for Panic
14:45 – 4th Quick Fix Anchor: Guru Rinpoche’s Triad of Non-Fabrication
17:00 – Visualization: Amitabha and the Peacock (Peacock representing your grief)
19:00 – Preparation for Chanting: Breathing and Visualization.
20:04 – Mantra Chanting Begins (Om Ami Deva Hrih and Pureland Dharani (see hard sub or below, 27x)
For a TRANSCRIPT of this feature, and more discussion in-depth see below.
Mantra and Dharani chanted 27 times in this video:
Om Ami Deva Hrih
Namo ratnatrayāya
Nama āryāmitābhāya
tathāgatāyārhate saṃyaksaṃbuddhāya
Tadyathā:
oṃ amṛte amṛtodbhave amṛtasaṃbhave amṛtagarbhe
amṛtasiddhe amṛtateje amṛtavikrānte
amṛtavikrāntagāmini amṛtagaganakīrtikari
amṛtadun-dubhisvare sarvārthasādhani
sarvakarmakleśakṣayaṃkari svāhā
Aum, brum, hum
TRANSLATED TO ENGLISH
Homage to the Three Jewels,
Homage to the noble Amitabha (Infinite Light),
to the Tathāgata, the Arhat, the completely and perfectly awakened one (samyaksambuddha).
Thus:
Oṃ O immortality (amrta), O maker of immortality! O born of immortality! O essence/embryo (garbha) of immortality!
O immortality perfecting one! O the brilliance (teja) of immortality! O he who goes beyond immortality!
O he who goes beyond immortality and whose glory is infinite as the sky (amṛtagaganakīrtikare)
O sound of the drum of immortality realizing (sadhane) benefit for all.
O he who destroys (ksayam) all karmic afflictions. Hail!
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Disclaimer: This video offers spiritual and practical support. It is not a substitute for professional mental health care. Please seek professional help if you are experiencing severe or persistent distress.
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Transcript
Welcome back to our Buddha Weekly Buddhist “Quick Fix” Practice and Mantra series. Today, we’re tackling something deeply human, incredibly painful, and yet rarely talked about with the practical urgency it demands. We’re talking about a Grief Attack — and some quick and practical responses to that sudden overwhelming and often incapacitating feeling.
Whether you are actively mourning a recent loss, or the loss of something precious, like your position at work, or the admiration of friends or family, or any loss that triggers unexpected grief. For this short “quick fix” we’ll call those all Grief Attacks.
This video was made possible through the generosity of our donor, patrons and ..
It feels like an emotional tidal wave, like a panic attack, completely overwhelming your mind and body. And, it doesn’t matter if you believed you were “over it” because this incapacitating grief can abruptly hit at any time, even months later. You can bookmark the mantra chanting in this video to play anytime you feel a Grief attack arising. Visualize as we’ll describe in this session, and chant for 5 or 10 minutes until the feeling passes.
Although you can skip ahead to the mantra and visualization for your session any time you need a quick fix, we’d first like to attack this unexpected and debilitating condition from a Buddhist perspective with a little context. We’ll be relying heavily on Buddha’s Sutra teachings, on lineage practices and meditation — and on the six realms of grief correlated to the six realms of Samsara. We’ll point to the Buddhist practices, one particularly compassionate mantra practice that wraps loving warm arms around you with irresistible power and love, famous for helping millions of people.
We’re referring especially here to Amitabha Buddha, often called the Caregiver Buddha. This name comes form psychologists who recognized that Amitabha practice is wrapped around the caregiver-archetype. His wisdom is discerning wisdom. He helps us see suffering and grief for what it really is — a passing non-permanent condition and nothing more than our unfulfilled attachment. Even his Pureland of Sukhavati is a place where all beings are supported. His Pureland literally means “the happy realm.”
For those suffering from Grief Attacks, in Buddhist terms, the magnetizing practices of Amitabha, Avalokiteshvara and all of the Padma family are the most supportive. They also are universal. Even a non-Buddhist can expect welcoming care from the Buddha of Compassion Amitabha.
Before we dive into this quick practice and mantra, none of this negates your responsibility to seek professional care for serious problems, but you should find this quick fix helpful and immediately reassuring.
Grief Attacks are centered entirely on the harsh reality of a loss, and an intense, almost physical yearning for the person, persons or condition who passed out of our lives. It can have it’s roots in a helpless feeling that you couldn’t do anything to help — or that you tried to help and feel like you failed.
From a Buddhist perspective, this is the raw, unvarnished face of Dukkha—the stress and sorrow that arises when we are separated from what we love, and forced to face impermanence.
One teaching of Amitabha’s Lotus family correlates to the six types of grief. It is called the Six Realms of Grief in Amitabha teachings, or the five realms of emotional rigidity that cause our grief attack. They correlate to the samsaric conditions in Buddhism known as Deva realm, human realm, Preta or Hungry Ghost Realm, Hell Realm or “Naraka” anger realm, Asura realm of resentment, and the Animal or Triyag Realm.
You might ask what does heaven, hell and animal realm have to do with grief? When we suffer grief, it can feel like we are in hell. Or we are hungry ghosts crying out for what we no longer have. Or we might be like Asuras, and be grieving our loss because those around us didn’t suffer such tragedy and we’re jealous of their happiness. These are all temporary, illusory conditions and feelings. We are not any more hungry ghosts than we are gods in heaven. We are humans, and it is in human form that we can actually attain true understanding. Or, put another way, the other five realms can be thought of as stages or types of grief, which, once understood, helps us accept human reality.
Amitabha practice helps us understand that striving to be like the Devas is escapism. We are avoiding the reality of our condition. We are bypassing our grief. Once we rationalize ourselves back to the human realm, we can progress.
If we are metaphorically in the Hungry Ghost or Preta realm, we are yearning and insatiable, calling out to our loved one to “come back, don’t leave me alone. How could you leave me alone?” In this stage of grief we have to come to terms with our own selfish desires and think instead of the happiness of our loved one who has passed on.
If we are symbolically in the Asura realm we are envious of our neighbors who have not yet experienced our loss. In this stage of grief, we have to come to understand that ultimately, as Buddha taught, all beings will experience impermanence. This understanding helps us migrate back to the Human realm.
In the hell realm of grief we are angry. Furious. “Why? Why? It’s not fair!” This one can be the most difficult to overcome, as anger can become like chains that are hard to break. It is through Amitabha’s compassion and love that the chains dissolve away.
The animal realm of grief is the most difficult. We’re in survival mode. Our mind feels foggy and unclear. We don’t know what to do. What do I do first? How do I survive? Amitabha helps us to understand that our loved one is still in our hearts, and we only have to look inside for answers. The fog clears, and we transform from the animal condition to human.
It is in the human realm that we have the spacious ability to integrate mindfulness, compassion, loving-kindness, and discernment. As Humans, we adapt, we grow, we learn. And, ultimately, we have Buddha Nature.
What’s unique about Grief Attack is that this psychological storm tends to manifest physically. This is why we say, “I’m in hell.” If you’ve ever had one, you know the symptoms are terrifying: trembling, sudden dizziness, a racing heart, shortness of breath, sweating, and a profound, hollow despair that swallows the room. It arises, often, unexpectedly and you don’t even know the cause. You’re in a meeting with the boss at work, and suddenly you feel crushing despair for no reason.
So, here is your first “quick fix” anchor. When we feel grief, for example if a loved one passes away, the most important thing is support. Wrap yourself in the support of friends and community. But, from a Buddhist point of view, especially wrap yourself in Refuge.
Your Refuge, your support is always the Three Jewels, the Buddha, the Dharma and the Sangha. The Sangha are those supporting loved ones and your fellow-sangha members around you. The Buddha is our strongest personal refuge, in whatever form you visualize. The Dharma are the teachings, and they are a great source of comfort and another quick fix. Since today’s quick fix is focused on Amitabha, the famous Namo Amitabhaya Buddhaya or Namo Amituofo or Namu Amida Butsu. This can be your entire practice. Just repeat 108 times or more, meditating on your breath. Stilling that panicky feeling. Focusing on one sound until the panic subsides.
The second Quick Fix, after you initially take Refuge, is to meditate on impermanence. Realize that impermanence also refers to your feelings. This is especially true of poisoness feelings of anger, grief, jealousy, greed, or any other poison. The science backs this assertion. Biologically and emotionally, the peak of a grief attack almost always lasts less than 30 minutes. The exhaustion afterward will linger, but the acute terror—the feeling that you are going to break or lose yourself—will pass. Of course, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t seek help of your advisors, caregivers, family and friends. Support is vital.
As the great meditation instructor Pema Düddul reminds us, these overwhelming panic states are not you. They are not your permanent identity. They are empty, impermanent fluctuations of the mind. Like a heavy mist on a dawn breeze, if we learn how to sit with them, they will naturally evaporate.
So, what do we do when a major Grief Attack wave hits? Your body is in a state of high fight-or-flight panic. Our first priority is to anchor your nervous system back into the physical world.
To do this, we combine modern sensory grounding with the profound, ancient instructions of the Lotus-Born Master, Guru Rinpoche Padmasambhava. When his closest disciple, Lady Tsogyal, admitted she felt no confidence facing the terrifying transitions of death and change, he gave her a condensed practice. He called it “all teachings compiled into one.”
First, the physical anchor. If you can, splash cold water on your face. The cold water triggers the mammalian dive reflex, which instantly slows down your heart rate. If you can’t reach water, hold something highly tactile—a stone, a wooden mala, or even press your hands firmly into your thighs.
Once you have that physical anchor, apply Guru Rinpoche’s triad of non-fabrication to your body, speech, and mind, taught to the Lady Tsogyal
Focus on Body first. Sit, free and relaxed, exactly as you are. Don’t fight the trembling. Sit or lie down, and let your muscles let go of the struggle. Focus on relaxing each muscle in your body, from the tips of your toes scanning upwards to the top of your head until every muscle is untangled.
Next, focus on speech. Stop trying to explain, analyze, or talk. Rest your speech completely, as Guru Rinpoche said, ”like a mute.” Just breathe. Follow your breath.
You’re now focused on your mind through this following of breath. Let your mind rest in its natural state, free and easy, without fabricating or trying to force the grief to change.
Think about that. Guru Rinpoche said “Without fabrication.” When we are in a grief attack, we spend so much energy arguing with the reality of the loss, crying out “Why?” or trying to suppress the pain. Non-fabrication means letting the waves crash over you without trying to build a dam to stop them.
As Guru Rinpoche taught, if you look at the mind during this state, it shimmers and flashes like haze in the sun. But if you try to grasp it, it has no shape, color, or form. It is empty, yet awake. By simply relaxing in this uncontrived awareness, we allow whatever arises to self-liberate.
Now, safe in the guidance of our Guru Rinpoche, who is the Nirmanakya aspect of the Padma family, we meditate on The Loving form of Amitabha Buddha, the ultimate caregiver Buddha.
When panic strikes, our breathing becomes shallow and rapid, which keeps the brain trapped in a cycle of panic. We need to intentionally slow down our breathing to send a biological safety signal to the brain.
As you relax, you can also chant along for the extra benefit of blessing your speech as well as your ear gateways.
Now we reach the point of transformation. Once the biological peak of the panic has been pacified by grounding and breathing, how do we begin to heal the deeper sorrow of the loss?
Visualize Amitabha, the Buddha of Infinite Light and Life, representing the West, the glowing red of the sunset. He is eternal life and light.
His throne is supported by peacocks. These sacred peacocks eat poisonous snakes, transmuting their venom into the brilliant, vibrant colors of their feathers.
This is our first visualization. The peacock and Amitabha. Understand that the Peacock is your grief and sadness. We do not run from the poison of sorrow. We do not pretend it isn’t there. Instead, like Amitabha’s peacocks, we digest it. We use the pain of loss to realize our shared vulnerability with all living beings, transforming selfish despair into boundless loving-kindness. We feel the rise of compassion in our own lives. The need to help others.
We are surrounded by clouds in this visualization. As the great teacher Thic Nhat Hanh’s taught, a cloud never truly dies. It simply transforms into rain or snow. The person, people or being we lost has not vanished; their consciousness has transformed, and their love continues to surround you, touching your life in new ways.
Now, we practice the ultimate shield of peace. We are going to chant the Amitabha Heart Mantra, Om Ami Deva Hrih, followed by the sacred Rebirth Dharani—the ancient Sanskrit chant used for centuries to remove all karmic obstacles, bring immediate tranquility, and guide our loved ones toward the Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss, Sukhavati. We can feel comforted, as Thic Nhat Hanh, that the journey is a transformation, not an end.
Wherever you are, if you are experiencing a wave of grief right now, whichever of the six realms you find yourself in, let your body relax. Let your breath slow down. Visualize a warm, brilliant red light—like a beautiful sunset—flowing from Amitabha’s heart above your crown, wrapping you in absolute safety and warmth. Let’s chant together with Hrishikesh Sonar and the Buddha Weekly band.
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Om Ami Deva Hrih
Namo ratnatrayāya
Nama āryāmitābhāya
tathāgatāyārhate saṃyaksaṃbuddhāya
Tadyathā:
oṃ amṛte amṛtodbhave amṛtasaṃbhave amṛtagarbhe
amṛtasiddhe amṛtateje amṛtavikrānte
amṛtavikrāntagāmini amṛtagaganakīrtikari
amṛtadun-dubhisvare sarvārthasādhani
sarvakarmakleśakṣayaṃkari svāhā
Aum, brum, hum
TRANSLATED TO ENGLISH:
Homage to the Three Jewels,
Homage to the noble Amitabha (Infinite Light),
to the Tathāgata, the Arhat, the completely and perfectly awakened one (samyaksambuddha).
Thus:
Oṃ O immortality (amrta), O maker of immortality! O born of immortality! O essence/embryo (garbha) of immortality!
O immortality perfecting one! O the brilliance (teja) of immortality! O he who goes beyond immortality!
O he who goes beyond immortality and whose glory is infinite as the sky (amṛtagaganakīrtikare)
O sound of the drum of immortality realizing (sadhane) benefit for all.
O he who destroys (ksayam) all karmic afflictions. Hail!
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“Grief Attack” Quick Fix – Four Anchors to Ground Grief with Amitabha Mantra and Pureland Dharani meditation and chanting
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Lee Kane
Author | Buddha Weekly
Lee Kane is the editor of Buddha Weekly, since 2007. His main focuses as a writer are mindfulness techniques, meditation, Dharma and Sutra commentaries, Buddhist practices, international perspectives and traditions, Vajrayana, Mahayana, Zen. He also covers various events.
Lee also contributes as a writer to various other online magazines and blogs.
