As already noted in the section titled, “Being Rightly Established in the Present” of Chapter 2, the Venerable Master Shinran wrote in his Kyogyoshinsho, that shinjin is “... not mingled with doubt,” and in the Ichinen Tannen Mon’i he wrote that it is “... hearing the Tathagata’s Vow without the mind of doubt.”

As also stated in the section titled, “The Primal Vow” of Chapter 1, the Venerable Master faithfully maintained the “Buddha-centered power” teaching that he received from Master Honen which was criticized by scholar/monks such as Jokei and Koben who upheld the “self-centered effort” position. It was from that “Buddha-centered power” position that the Venerable Master developed his explanation of the “division of the sea of vows into the true and expedient” (gankai shinké), which divides the 48 Vows into the true vows and the expedient (provisional) vows.

The Venerable Master considered the “five true vows” to be: the 11th Vow that will “absolutely cause enlightenment” (hisshi metsudo no gan), 12th Vow of “limitless light” (komyo muryo no gan), 13th Vow of “limitless life” (jumyo muryo no gan), 17th Vow that “all Buddhas will recite Amida Buddha’s Name” (shobutsu shomyo no gan), and the 18th Vow of “sincere mind, faith serene (and wish birth in the Pure Land)” (shishin shingyo no gan).

The 17th Vow is:

If, when I attain Buddhahood, the Buddhas in all lands in the ten directions do not praise and glorify my Name, may I not attain perfect Enlightenment.

The Venerable Master was attracted to the position of this 17th Vow that Buddhas in the ten directions will praise and honor Amida Buddha’s honorable Name (the myogo, Namo Amida Butsu) which contains great virtue. This developed from the position of other Buddhist groups that doing 120 “various goods through self-centered effort” (jiriki shozen) is the best practice, and criticized Master Honen’s “single practice of reciting the Buddha’s Name” (Nembutsu ichigyo) as being inferior.

In other words, the Name surpasses the virtue of doing “various goods” through “self-centered effort” because it was realized as a result of the Primal Vow. The Name “Namo Amida Butsu,” that was fulfilled as a result of this 17th Vow was solely due to the Buddha. What finally reaches our minds and hearts is shinjin, and what comes out of our mouths is the Nembutsu. Since this is the shinjin that is given to us by the Buddha, it is referred to as “the shinjin based on the ‘merit transference’ of the ‘power of the Primal Vow’” (as expressed in the Chapter on Faith of the Kyogyoshinsho), and “shinjin conferred on us by Tathagata” (as expressed in the Tannisho), and is the cause of our birth in the Pure Land. As also already related, this shinjin is the “faith of the being to be enlightened” (shin-ki) and the “faith of the dharma that enlightens” (shin-ho) of “the two types of deep faith” (niju jinshin).