Regardless of how much we may sympathize with others, since there is no way we can save them as we would like through our own efforts, our “compassion” is not absolute. And since we can save others freely only by becoming a Buddha through the Nembutsu, only the mind of Great Compassion that we receive through the Nembutsu can be considered absolute.

In other words, saving sentient beings as we would like with the mind of Great Compassion requires that we become a Buddha through birth in the Pure Land, and “return from the Pure Land.” The Venerable Master never spoke of his own “return from the Pure Land” as a result of his shinjin experience. I believe that is because of his deep self-reflection.

This is an extremely important point.

As long as we are in this world, we are only “ignorant beings filled with base passions.” That is our true self—the self that is absolutely unable to even approach being a Buddha. If we look at ourselves as someone who has “returned from the Pure Land,” we are not looking at our true selves.

Considering “returning from the Pure Land” to happen only after being born there and attaining the same enlightenment as a Buddha (after losing our physical body) rather than immediately after receiving shinjin means that rather than being able to “save” (which only a Buddha can do), what we can do in this world is spread the teaching.

Although the Venerable Master never referred to himself as a person who had “returned from the Pure Land,” he frequently considered others to have done so. For example, in the General Preface of the Kyogyoshinsho, he wrote:

Since the conditions were ripe for the teaching of Birth in the Pure Country to be revealed, Daiba provoked Ajase to commit rebellious acts; and as the person to be saved by the Pure Act now appears, Shakyamuni lead Idaike (Queen Vaidehi) to choose (her birth to be in) the Land of Serene Sustenance. Out of compassion, the incarnated sages sought to save the suffering multitudes...

and considered Daiba (Devadatta), Ajase (Ajatasatru), and Idaike (Queen Vaidehi), as described in the Meditation Sutra to have “returned from the Pure Land.” In the Koso Wasan, he wrote:

Master Zendo
Embodied the sea of Great Compassion.
He called upon Buddhas in the ten directions
To bear witness
For the last age of this defiled world.

and

“I appeared as a Buddha (in this world),”
Master Genshin said,
“But because the conditions (to lead others)
“Are exhausted,
“I will return to my original land.”

and

Some worldly people have said
That Master Genka’s (Honen’s) original state
Was Master Doshuku,
While others say he was Zendo.