“Immediately “Becoming a Buddha in the Pure Land” and “Returning from the Pure Land”

In the Chapter on Shinjin of his Kyogyoshinsho, the Venerable Master wrote:

Regardless of class or rank, those born in the Pure Recompensed Land of the Great Vow will immediately attain the “unparalleled true way”; hence, it is referred to as “crosswise transcendence.”

In other words, the Venerable Master asserted that we will attain the highest level of enlightenment, i.e., become a Buddha, at the moment we are born in the Pure Land. Further, in the Chapter on Faith he wrote:

Truly we know that because Miroku Bosatsu has realized the diamond-hard mind of the “state equal to bodhi,” he will attain the Highest Enlightenment. As a result of three dharma talks that he will give under a dragon-flower tree, those who (recite the) Nembutsu with the diamond-hard mind of “crosswise transcendence” (shinjin) will also attain the great, perfect Nirvana the moment they leave this world. That is why followers of the Nembutsu are said to be “equal” (to Miroku Bosatsu).

In his Shozomatsu Wasan, the Venerable Master wrote,

Five-billion six-hundred-seventy million
Years will pass
Before Miroku Bosatsu
Attains the highest Enlightenment,
But those with shinjin
Will attain it immediately
(After leaving this world).

As related above, those with shinjin will attain enlightenment before Miroku Bosatsu (who has the rank of toshogaku, the 51st stage on the Bodhisattva Path) attains the supreme Enlightenment 5,670,000,000 years from now. As already indicated, Pure Land thought before the Venerable Master was that only after being born in the Pure Land would you be in the “Rightly Established Group,” after which you must perform the religious practices required in order to become a Buddha (become enlightened).

The Venerable Master turned this thought around, and asserted that we are in the “rightly established group” when our shinjin is determined, and emphasized that we will become a Buddha simultaneously with our birth in the Pure Land.

After “becoming a Buddha,” we immediately “return to this world” (genso) and begin our activity of helping others.

In his Chapter on Teaching of the Kyogyoshinsho, the Venerable Master wrote:

Reverently contemplating the “true teaching of Pure Land” (Jodo-Shinshu), I see there are two kinds of “merit transference.” One is the “phase of going” (oso), and the other is the “phase of returning” (genso),