The Passage in the Chapter on Shinjin of the Kyogyoshinsho: “The Great Practice is Reciting the Name of the Tathagata of Unhindered Light”

Let me now comment on the first of the items in the section, “Criticism of ‘Shinjin is the True Cause’ and ‘Reciting (the Name) in Gratitude.’”

A critic of the “reciting (the Name) in gratitude” position uses the opening passage of the Chapter on Practice of the Kyogyoshinsho to justify his position that the Nembutsu is the “great practice,” and that even a Nembutsu recited without shinjin has the power to awaken shinjin.

Clearly, the opening passage of the Chapter on Practice, “The ‘great practice’ is reciting the name of the Tathagata of Unhindered Light,” does not say anything about having or not having shinjin. This does not mean, however, that the Venerable Master said that the Nembutsu recited without shinjin is the “great practice.” The fact that he wrote, “recite the Name of the Tathagata of Unhindered Light,” rather than “recite Namo Amida Butsu,” clearly indicates that he is following the commentary given in the second volume of Donran Daishi’s Ojo Ronchu (Commentary on Birth in the Pure Land) where Donran Daishi refers to “recitation of the Name” with the shinjin that is endowed with dharma and reality.

Further, in the Chapter on Practice, the Venerable Master quotes Master Honen as follows:

Know clearly that (reciting the Nembutsu) is not a practice that anyone, whether ordinary person or sage, must perform to gain merit. That is why it is referred to as the “practice of no ‘merit transference’” (fueko no gyo).

The practice that is clarified in the Chapter on Practice is not the “self-centered effort” practice that depends on personal striving, but rather, is the practice based on the “merit transference of ‘Buddha-centered power’” that is received from the Buddha and also the “practice of no ‘merit transference.’”

Further, in the explanation of practice in the Jodo Monrui Jusho (A Collection of Passages on the Pure Land), it states:

Know that in the words of the sutras and commentaries on them, that (the Nembutsu) is not a “practice for the ‘ignorant filled with base passions’ to offer their merit to the Buddha” (bombu eko no gyo). Rather, it is the “practice of ‘merit transference’ of Great Com-passion (by the Buddha towards sentient beings)” (daihi eko no gyo), and also “no ‘merit transference’” (fu-eko) by sentient beings.

Here too, it states that the “great practice” is not something done with “self-centered effort” that is based on the strength of “ignorant beings filled with base passions,” but rather, is the “‘merit transference’ of from Great Compassion” that is given to us by the Buddha. That is why we are unable to “transfer merit,” and why, for us, it is the “practice of no ‘merit transference.’”