As expressed in the aphorism, "Correcting our errors from seeing the errors of others," only when we see others acting badly do we become faintly aware of that indication in ourselves. Unfortunately, we are very slow to become aware of our own shortcomings. The deeper we look into ourselves, however, the clearer we see how evil we truly are, and the more we become aware of our insincerity. Or, expressed in more modern terms, the more we become aware of our imperfections.

In Article Thirteen of the Tannisho, the Venerable Master is quoted as saying, "When the karmic conditions are ripe, we might do anything!" making us aware that when the causes or conditions are in place, who knows what horrible things we might do. Because that is the sort of being we are, the position of "the evil person is the true object (of Amida's salvation)" also expressed as, "Since even a good person can be born in the Pure Land, how much more so will an evil person"-gives us confidence that "our birth (in the Pure Land) is determined" (ojo ichijo), and is what gives us spiritual relief.

We must be very careful, however, to not take the phrase, "the evil person is the true object (of Amida's salvation)," to mean that we should intentionally perform bad or evil actions. In traditional Jodo- Shinshu terminology, this mistaken point of view is referred to as "creating evil without obstruction" (zoaku muge).

Letter 20 of the Mattosho contains the passage:

(You should never say,) here’s an antidote so take all the poison you want...

Further, the Tannisho states:

A person once fell into holding the following wrong view: He held that since the purpose of the Vow was to save those who had committed evil actions, we should do evil on purpose to make it the cause for our birth (in the Pure Land). So saying, he purposely committed evil. When the Venerable Master (Shinran) heard about this, he said in a letter, “We should not take poison just because there is an antidote." He meant to dissuade us from holding such a wrong view, but that does not mean evil is an obstacle to our birth (in the Pure Land) at all.

We should not take poison just because there is an antidote for it. The Venerable Master says it is an outrageous mistake to urge others to do evil because of Amida Buddha's saving grace.