As indicate by the above, we should “listen” without doubt to the reason for the “name and title” in the Primal Vow that absolutely guarantees to save us.

We thus see how important “listening” is for “settled shinjin,” even for the Venerable Master Shinran. And through Master Rennyo’s quotation of the Venerable Master’s wasan in Article 193 of “Heard and Recorded During Master Rennyo’s Lifetime” already quoted, we see that both Master Rennyo and the Venerable Master considered “listening” to be the basis of “settled shinjin”:

Those who fight through the flames
Of the great thousand worlds
To hear the Buddha’s Honorable Name
Are assured of attaining
The stage of “non-retrogresssion.”

As to what we “listen” to, it is the Honorable Name (“name and title, myogo) of Namo Amida Butsu mentioned in the phrase “hearing the ‘name and title’” (myogo wo kiku) of the “text on the fulfillment of the Vow.” Regarding this, as Master Rennyo wrote in Letter 15, Fascle I of “Honorable Letters” already quoted:

“Hearing the ‘name and title” is not hearing the sixcharacters of “na-mo-a-mi-da-butsu” unreflectingly. Rather, it refers to meeting a good teacher, receiving his teaching, and entrusting ourselves to the “name and title” of Namo Amida Butsu.

Specifically, what it means to “listen” to the “name and title” is exactly what the Venerable Master Shinran wrote in the Chapter on Faith of his “Teaching, Practice, Faith and Attainment” regarding “hearing” the “reason for the origin and fulfillment of the Buddha’s Vow” (butsugan no shoki honmatsu).

I am constantly repeating this but “reason for the origin and fulfillment of the Buddha’s Vow” refers to why Amida Buddha established his Primal Vow, which is to save me, “ignorant and filled with base desires” as I am, and absolutely incapable of becoming enlightened through my own efforts.

The “origin” of “origin and fulfillment” in the above paragraph is the infinitely long period (five kalpas (eons) of contemplation) that the Buddha spent considering how best to “save” me, and what he had to do to fulfill the vow (Primal Vow) that he established. “Fulfillment” refers to the fact that the Primal Vow which will absolutely “save” me (through the “name and title”) has been brought to fruition.