All twenty-three verses in the “Hymns on Doubt” section warn against “self-centered effort.” Most of the verses admonish against the “true gate” (20th Vow) but the eighth verse seems to admonish against the “essential gate” (19th Vow) of performing “goods” actions through “self-centered effort”:

Those who perform “good deeds”
Through “self-centered effort”
(In trying to be born in the Pure Land),
Doubt the “marvelously mysterious”
Wisdom of the Buddha.
Because they will “reap as they sow” (jigo jitoku)
They confine themselves in the prison
Of seven treasures.

The remaining twenty-two verses, and not just the three that I quoted, all admonish against the “Nembutsu of the ‘true gate’ based on ‘self-centered effort.’” As can be determined, the number of passages that criticize it, is rather large.

There are many theories as to when the Venerable Master’s absolute reliance on the 18th Vow took place, but as I indicated in Part One, I believe it was when he was 29 years of age. I believe that was when he was absolutely sure of his birth in the Pure Land, and that he felt a relief and peace of mind regarding it that did not change in the slightest from then on.

Some scholars, however, believe that the Venerable Master’s shinjin was not completely settled until the age of 42. These scholars point to two indications contained in Letter Five of the Venerable Master’s wife’s letters (collected in a work titled, Eshinni Shosoku).

In this letter, Eshinni-ko records that when the Venerable Master was 42 years of age, he began chanting the Three Pure Land Sutras a thousand times from a feeling that he had to do something for the benefit of all the dead bodies that he saw on the wayside, and the masses of people dying from malnutrition because of famine then stalking the land. After four or five days, however, the Venerable Master realized that he could not transfer the merit in the sutras to sentient beings, and so quit his chanting.

In that same letter, it states that at the age of 57, 17 years after deciding to chant Three Pure Land Sutras a thousand times and then quitting also during a time of great famine the Venerable Master was in sickbed with a high fever when he began chanting the Larger Sutra in delirium, but again quit when he realized there was no merit in doing so.

These scholars believe the Venerable Master’s shinjin was not completely settled until after he quit chanting the Three Pure Land Sutras a thousand times for the benefit of others at the age of 42. I believe, however, that the reason the Venerable Master began his chanting was due to the sympathy he felt for the people and from a desire to do something to help them, but that this chanting had nothing to do with his own birth in the Pure Land, which had been settled long ago. In other words, I believe it had nothing to do with the Venerable Master’s own shinjin.