“Classification into the ‘True,’ ‘Provisional’ and ‘False’”

Next is “Classification into the ‘true,’ ‘provisional’ and ‘false’” (shinke-gi-han). In Letter 1 of the Mattosho (Light for the Later Ages), the Venerable Master wrote:

Within the Jodo teaching are the “true” and the “provisional.” The “true” is the selected Primal Vow. The “provisional” is the good of the meditative and non - meditative practices. The selected Primal Vow is the True Teaching of the Pure Land, and the meditative and non-meditative practices are provisional teachings.

In the Chapter on Shinjin of the Kyogyoshinsho, the the Venerable Master wrote the following about the word “true”:

...the word “true” is contrasted with “false” and “provisional.”

He wrote the following about “provisional”:

“Provisional” refers to the various beings in the Path of Sages and the beings who practice the meditative and non-meditative good deeds of the Pure Land Path.

He wrote the following about “false”:

There are 95 false teachings, described under 65 headings.

As can be determined from the above, the teaching of “absolute ‘Buddha-centered power’” based on the 18th Vow (the Selected Primal Vow) is the True teaching. The teaching of the Path of Sages and also the Pure Land Path that is based on the 19th (the “essential gate”) and 20th (the “true gate”) Vows are the “provisional” teachings. The teachings other than the teachings of Buddha-dharma are “false” teachings. That is how the Venerable Master placed Jodo-Shinshu within the context of other teachings.