when we accept the Primal Vow and the desire to recite the Nembutsu rises within us, we are “embraced never to be forsaken.” That is, we enter into the “rightly-established group of those assured of birth (in the Pure Land), from which there is no falling back.”

That is how the Venerable Master taught us that our birth in the Pure Land, where we will become a Buddha, is guaranteed from the moment we receive shinjin. That is our benefit in the present.

Again, as already stated, the purpose of what is known as Buddha-dharma is to teach us how to become a Buddha. Next to the phrase, itoku dairi, which means “benefit of becoming (a Buddha),” is the following phrase written with kana characters to explain what this means: “Know that you will receive the benefit of becoming a Buddha.” In other words, the Venerable Master said that the great benefit of truth is being assured that we will become a Buddha, and that is what joining the “rightly-established group of those assured (of birth in the Pure Land)” means.

The Venerable Master Shinran explained that the “ten benefits in the present world” (gensho jisshu) are:

1. Protected by unseen divine beings (myoshu goji).
2. Possessed of the supreme virtue (shitoku gusoku).
3. Having evil turned into good (tenaku jyozen).
4. Protected by all Buddhas (shobutsu gonen).
5. Praised by all Buddhas (shobutsu shyosan).
6. Protected by the Buddha’s spiritual light (shinko jogo).
7. Having much joy in mind (shinta kangi).
8. Acknowledging His benevolence and repaying it (chion hotoku).
9. Always practicing the Great Compassion (jyogyo daihi).
10. Entering the Rightly-Established Group (shojyoju ni iru).

Further, the Venerable Master wrote 15 poems in Genze Riyaku Wasan (Japanese Poems on Benefits in the Present Life). All those in the “rightly-established group” receive these benefits in the present. The Venerable Master’s great grandson, Master Kakunnyo, used the term “everyday life” (heizei) in referring to when our birth in the Pure Land is determined.

In the Jodo Wasan is the following:

(He) watches over Nembutsu followers
Within worlds numerous as dust particles
That lie in the ten directions,
Embracing and not forsaking them;
Hence, he is called “Amida.”

In the Takada copy of the Jodo Wasan, there is a comment next to the kanji characters, sesshu, which is rendered “embracing” in the above translation. The comment is, “to take in and never discard.”