But although the Venerable Master explained it in the above two ways, they are exactly the same in terms of content, and mean “being in the state whereby we become a Buddha in the Pure Land.” As to when in the present we become part of the “rightly established group,” as stated in the previous quotations, it is at the moment we “receive the mind and practice of ‘merit-transference’ in the ‘phase of going (to the Pure Land),’” i.e., when our shinjin (“true mind,” “faith mind”) is determined.

As to what shinjin is, in the Chapter on Faith of the Kyogyoshinsho, the Venerable Master wrote that it is the mind “without doubt” and also the mind “not mingled with doubt.”

Further, in the Ichinen Tanen Mon’i (On the One Thought and the Many Thoughts), the Venerable Master wrote:

Shinjin is hearing the Tathagata’s Great Vow without doubt.

In other words, shinjin is, “the mind that accepts the Primal Vow without doubt.” Further, this shinjin is divided into “the two aspects of deep faith” (nishu jinshin), which is the deep faith on the part of  “those who are to be saved” (ki) and the deep faith on the part “that does the saving” (ho, i.e., the saving power of the Primal Vow).

Zendo Daishi expressed this in the following way:

The term jinshin refers to the “deep mind.” There are two aspects to this mind. The first is the awareness that I am an evil being who has been transmigrating from beginningless past with absolutely no possibility of escape from that round of suffering. Second is acceptance of Amida Buddha’s 48 Vows that embrace all sentient beings and that its Vow Power absolutely guarantees my birth in the Pure Land.

The first is the deep faith of “those who are to be saved,” and the second is the deep faith of the “side that does the saving.” In other words, the shinjin taught in Jodo-Shinshu is:

• “I am an evil being who has wandered in the world of delusion from timeless past and have absolutely no possibility of reaching the world of enlightenment” (ki-no- jinshin) and
• “Amida Buddha established his Primal Vow to absolutely cause just such an evil person to be born in the Pure Land” (ho-no- jinshin).

These two aspects are the single deep personal self reflection that, “this person who is completely beyond salvation will, in fact, absolutely be saved.”

As already mentioned, the Venerable Master Shinran considered shinjin to be something completely due to Amida Buddha, and referred to it as “shinjin based on the ‘merit transference’ of ‘Buddha-centered power’” (tariki eko no shinjin). Essentially, when this shinjin is decided, is when we enter the “rightly-established group of those who are assured of birth in the Pure Land without fail.”

As it states in Article One of the Tannisho:

The moment we accept the fact that even ignorant beings such as we, will be born in the Pure Land through Amida’s “marvelously mysterious Vow, and there rises within us the desire to recite the Nembutsu, we already share in the benefit of “being embraced never to be forsaken,”