Master Rennyo then explained this poem in the following way:

The phrase “Long ago, my joy was wrapped in my sleeves” means that, in the past, we felt certain—without any clear understanding of sundry practices and right practice—that we would be born (in the Pure Land) if we just recite the Nembutsu. “But, tonight, it’s more than I can contain” means that the joy of reciting the Nembutsu in gratitude for the Buddha’s benevolence is especially great now that, having heard and understood the difference between the right and sundry (practices), we have become steadfast and single-hearted, and have thus undergone a decisive settling of shinjin. Because of this, we are so overjoyed that we feel like dancing—hence the joy is “more than I can contain.”

As this passage implies, before receiving “settled shinjin,” Master Rennyo was unable to differentiate between the “practice leading to birth in the Pure Land” (jodoojo no gyo) and the “practice of the Path of Sages” (shodomon no gyo). He thought he would be born in the Pure Land merely through reciting “Namo Amida Butsu.” After receiving “settled shinjin,” however, he was able to differentiate between the “correct practice” and “sundry practices”; specifically, he knew the difference between the Nembutsu recited with “self-centered effort” and the Nembutsu based on “Buddha-centered power.” His present state, in which he recites the Nembutsu in gratitude to the Buddha is very different from before his shinjin was settled.

I believe the only reason Master Rennyo could make such a clear distinction between before receiving shinjin and after receiving it, is because he had experienced a “turning of the mind.” There is much further evidence like this in other letters in his “Honorable Letters” and also in articles in “Heard and Recorded During Master Rennyo’s Lifetime.”

It is for such reasons that I cannot agree with those who say that although the Venerable Master Shinran experi-enced a “turning of the mind,” Master Rennyo did not, and that Master Rennyo was not a true religious personality.

But it was because Master Rennyo had the “true and real” (shinjitsu) mind of shinjin that what he taught was “true and real.” It was because he received the Venerable Master Shinran’s intent correctly that he was able to transmit the teaching of Amida Buddha’s Vow correctly. That’s the only reason he could respond to the desires of the multitudes, and why the Hongwanji as an organization was revived as a result.