Further, in the Ichinen Tanen Mon’i, written when he was 85, the Venerable Master wrote:

What we refer to as bombu is being ignorant and filled with base passions; it is being greedy, becoming angry, always jealous and filled with hate. These passions remain with us until the moment we die.

And again, in Article Two of the Tannisho, compiled from the the Venerable Master’s words when he was past 80 years of age, he is quoted as saying,

Since I am incapable of any practice whatsoever, hell will definitely be my dwelling.

From the above quotations (and there are many others), you can see there is absolutely nothing that can be taken to mean that the Venerable Master felt he had returned from the Pure Land; rather, he continued considering himself to be an “ignorant being filled with base passions” all his life. On this matter, too, the Venerable Master’s shinjin expresses the thought of the “two aspects of deep faith.” That is where the deep personal self-reflection of the “deep faith on the part of the being to be enlightened” (ki no jinshin) based on shinjin is found. In other words, it is the feeling of, “I am an ignorant being filled with base passions incapable of doing anything but evil, and sinking and transmigrating from the endless past without hope of escaping...” so there couldn’t be any thought about having returned from the Pure Land.

In his Koso Wasan, the Venerable Master wrote:

Upon reaching the Land Recompensed by the Vow,
We realize the unsurpassed Nirvana;
That is, Great Compassion is awakened in us.
This is referred to as “merit transference.”

Again, in Letter 20 of the Mattosho, the Venerable Master wrote:

Only after going to the Buddha’s Land and returning to benefit sentient beings can we become close to and friendly with those given to wrongdoing. That, however, is not of our own doing. Only when we are saved by Amida’s Vow can we act freely.

As indicated above, the Venerable Master’s understanding of “‘merit transference’ of ‘returning from the Pure Land’” (genso eko) is being born in the Pure Land, becoming a Buddha, and then acting to benefit sentient beings. Some might consider this to be a passive activity but I do not believe it is. The Venerable Master spoke of being in the “rightly-established group,” and emphasized being saved in the present. He said returning to this world came after birth in the Pure Land and attaining enlightenment. This is absolutely not a passive attitude in spreading the teaching; rather, I believe it is very positive.

As can also be determined from Letter 20 of the Mattosho already quoted, only after being born in the Pure Land and becoming Enlightened as a Buddha, will we be endowed with the great power that we do not have in the present world, and only through that power are we able to act to benefit sentient beings as we wish.