To begin with, the term anjin was used by Zendo Daishi (613 - 681 AD) to refer to the “three minds” (sanshin), which are: “sincere mind” (shijo-shin), “deep mind” (jin-shin) and “mind that transfers the merit of aspiring (for the Pure Land)” (eko hotsugan-shin). It is a term that can often be seem in his writings. The Venerable Master Shinran quoted Zendo Daishi many times in his own writings, beginning with his masterwork, “Teaching, Practice, Faith and Attainment” (Kyogyoshinsho).

Those who assert that the Venerable Master Shinran disliked the use of the term anjin and did not use it, are those who misunderstand shinjin.

What Master Rennyo understood anjin to mean is expressed in many places, such as Article 19 of “Gleamings in ‘Heard and Recorded During Master Rennyo’s Lifetime’” (Shui Rennyo Shonin Goichidai Kikigaki) where the following is found:

Anjin means that by relying wholeheartedly on Amida you will be saved just as you are. That is why the an character of anjin is written with the character meaning “easy” and also “peaceful.” (The jin character, also read shin, means mind.) Indeed, the term anjin refers to a peaceful and tranquil mind itself.

Further, Master Zonkaku (1290 - 1373 AD) in his “In Praise of the Virtue (of the Venerable Master Shinran)” (Tantoku-mon) used the phrase, “the anjin of the karma determined in everyday life” (heizei gojo no anjin), which refers to “the mind at ease due to absolute assurance of ‘birth in the Pure Land’” (ojo ichijo no ando no kokoro).

Those who consider the Venerable Master Shinran to have engaged in activities against those in authority more than concern about birth in the Pure Land, seem to consider his antiauthoritarian activities to be his shinjin. Such people may consider “the mind at ease due to absolute assurance of ‘birth in the Pure Land’” to be completely foreign to the Venerable Master Shinran’s thought, but if they do, they are completely mistaken in their understanding of his shinjin.

It goes without saying that the shinjin in Jodo-Shinshu (the Venerable Master Shinran’s teaching) is the shinjin of the 18th Vow, which is: