The reason Master Rennyo stressed keeping “this matter of greatest importance in the next life” in mind was to encourage us to have “settled shinjin” in our everyday life and join the “‘group of those assured (of birth in the Pure Land)’ in our ‘present life.’”

Those who criticize Master Rennyo as being solely concerned about the next world frequently use the following quotation from Letter 10, Fascle I of “Honorable Letters” as the basis of their criticism:

We live only as long as a dream or an illusion. Only in the “next life” (gosho) can we find the joyful result in all eternity. That is why we should abandon the mind that wishes to perform various practices and also the mind that tends to avoid certain things, and single-mindedly rely on Amida Buddha. We need not concern ourselves with other buddhas, bodhisat-tvas and various deities; rather, we should take refuge exclusively in Amida, knowing that our birth in the Pure Land is already absolutely determined. The gratitude to Amida Buddha we feel as a result causes us to recite the Nembutsu.

But even in this passage, Master Rennyo urges us to have “settled shinjin” and become a person whose “birth in the Pure Land is already absolutely determined” (ojo jijo) in our everyday life with the phrase, “... take refuge exclusively in Amida, knowing that our birth in the Pure Land is already absolutely determined. The gratitude to Amida we feel as a result causes us to recite the Nembutsu.”

Further, critics are fond of quoting the following passage from Letter 2, Fascle V:

Those who do not know (the importance of) the next life are said to be foolish, even if they understand eighty thousand sutras and teachings. But those who know about the next life are wise, even if they are unlettered men and women who have renounced the world while remaining in lay life. Accordingly, the heart of our tradition is, more than diligently reading the sacred literature and knowing intellectually, experiencing the one thought-moment of shinjin. This you should know.

As expressed in this passage, “experiencing the one thought-moment of shinjin,” is what is most important. Thus although the phrase, “... those who know about the next life are wise” is used, it does not refer to merely having intellectual knowledge about the next world; rather, it refers to urging us to “experience the one thought-moment of shinjin” (receive “settled shinjin”) and urges us to be persons whose birth in the Pure Land is guaranteed in our everyday life.

The heizei gojo that Master Rennyo spoke of is not something that takes place after our life in this world comes to an end. Rather, it refers to “settled shinjin” and fulfillment in our everyday life of the karmic conditions for our birth in the Pure Land where we will become a Buddha. It does not refer to being born in the Pure Land the moment our “shinjin is settled” in everyday life, nor that we become a Buddha then.