As can be determined from this, Master Honen did not consider earnestly desiring “the Buddha welcoming us at the moment of death” to be of primary importance. Rather, he said it was the virtue of reciting the Nembutsu during ordinary times that causes Amida Buddha to welcome us and what assures us of having the proper mental attitude at that time.

In another part of this same work, Master Honen’s behavior at the moment of his passing is described in the following way:

When (Master Honen) disciples asked him if they should attach strings with the five colors to the hands (of a statue) of the Buddha (and bring the other ends of the strings to Master Honen for him to hold), (Master Honen) said that is a custom many follow, but that there is no need to insist on following it.

As described above, at his own moment of death, Master Honen’s disciples probably tied a fivecolored string to the hand of a Buddhist image and placed the other end in Master Honen’s hands, urging him to request Amida Buddha to welcome him to the Pure Land. In response, Master Honen said that may be a common practice, but it is not something that must be done, and that he himself would not do it.

As can be determined from this, Master Honen was confident of Amida Buddha welcoming him to the Pure Land because of the virtue in the Nembutsu. He didn’t have the slightest uneasiness about it, but he had no desire to deny it either.

On this point, the Venerable Master wrote the following in Letter 1 of the Mattosho:

Amida Buddha coming (to escort you to the Pure Land) is for those who perform various practices. The moment of death is of concern to such “doers” of “selfcentered effort” practices because they have not received true shinjin. ... Those with shinjin, however are in the “rightly-established group” for they have been “embraced, never to be forsaken.” There is thus no need for us to wait for the moment of death, nor to rely on Amida Buddha coming (to escort us to the Pure Land) because our birth in the Pure Land is established at the moment our shinjin is determined.

As can be seen from the above, the Venerable Master also denied the thought of Amida Buddha welcoming those about to die. As indicated in the section titled “The Primal Vow” of Chapter 1 of this part, the 48 Vows are divided into the “true vows” and the “provisional vows.” The 19th Vow is considered to be an expedient (provisional) vow, and therefore not an explicit statement of the truth. Further, we have the Venerable Master’s statement that I just quoted: “There is thus no need to wait for the moment of death, nor to rely on Amida Buddha coming (to escort us to the Pure Land) because our birth in the Pure Land is established at the moment our shinjin is determined.”