Shinran’s Verses on True Entrusting

Wholeheartedly I rely on the Tathagata of immeasurable life, Amida Buddha.

Wholeheartedly I take refuge in the Buddha of inconceivable light.

When Amida was still practicing as Dharmakara Bodhisattva,

he was in the presence of Lokeshvararaja Buddha.

He discerned the causes by which the Pure Lands of many Buddhas arose,

and the good and harmful conditions of their heavenly and human inhabitants.

He established an unsurpassed and outstanding aspiration,

arousing a rare and incomparable great vow.

For five vast kalpas he carefully considered and chose the means of rescue,

repeatedly vowing that his name should reach every direction.

He emits immeasurable, boundless light everywhere:

unobstructed, unequaled light, supreme like a king of flames;

light bringing purity, joy, and wisdom;

uninterrupted, inconceivable light beyond the reach of praise;

light surpassing sun and moon, illuminating worlds as numerous as dust.

All beings are illuminated by that light.

The Name given through the original vow is the settled practice for birth;

the vow to bring sincere trust and joy is the cause of birth.

Attaining the stage where Buddhahood is assured and realizing great nirvana

come through fulfillment of the vow that surely ends delusion and brings awakening.

必至滅度 describes the original vow to bring beings surely to awakening beyond delusion.

The reason Shakyamuni Tathagata appeared in this world

was solely to teach Amida’s original vow, vast as an ocean.

The oceanlike multitude of beings in the evil age of five defilements

should trust and receive the Tathagata’s truthful words.

When trust and joy arise in a single thought,

one can reach nirvana without oneself cutting off every affliction.

Ordinary and holy, those guilty of grave offences and those who slander the teaching—if equally entering the vow,

they are not separated, like the waters of many rivers becoming one taste in the sea.

The light of the Buddha’s heart, embracing without abandoning, always shines and protects.

Though the darkness of ignorance has already been broken,

the clouds and mists of greed, attachment, anger, and hatred

still constantly cover the sky of true entrusting.

It is like sunlight covered by cloud and mist:

beneath them it remains bright and does not become darkness.

Receiving entrusting, revering the Buddha, and receiving great joy,

one immediately crosses sideways beyond the five deluded realms through the Buddha’s power, ending their cycle.

All ordinary people, good or harmful,

who hear and trust the Tathagata’s vast vow

are called by the Buddha people of broad and excellent understanding,

likened to the pundarika, the pure white lotus.

For beings caught in mistaken views and arrogance,

receiving the nembutsu of Amida’s original vow

with trust and joy and preserving it is truly difficult.

Among difficult things, nothing is more difficult.

The teachers who discussed the Dharma in India,

and the excellent monks of China and Japan,

revealed the true intent of great Shakyamuni’s appearance

and clarified how the Tathagata’s original vow responds to each person.

On Mount Lanka, Shakyamuni Tathagata

told the assembly that in southern India

an excellent person named Nagarjuna would appear,

breaking through the extremes of ‘substantial existence’ and ‘nothing exists.’

Nagarjuna teaches the unsurpassed Mahayana Dharma,

realizes the bodhisattva’s first stage of joy, and is born in the Pure Land of Peace.

He explains the difficult practice path, laborious like traveling overland,

and teaches the easy path of trust and joy as peaceful like traveling by boat.

Mindfully remembering Amida’s original vow,

one naturally enters, at that moment, the stage where Buddhahood is assured.

Simply always recite the Tathagata’s name

and repay the kindness of the vast vow of great compassion.

Vasubandhu Bodhisattva composed the Treatise on the Pure Land

and took refuge in the Tathagata of unobstructed light.

Presenting truth on the basis of the sutras,

he widely clarified the great vow that carries beings beyond delusion through Buddha power.

Through the broad dedication of merit from the original vow’s power,

he revealed the meaning of one heart to rescue many beings.

Entering the great jeweled ocean of merit,

one surely joins the assembly of great sages,

reaches the pure lotus-filled world,

and directly realizes a body embodying suchness and Dharma nature—reality as it is.

Then one enters the forest of afflictions and manifests free activity,

returning to the garden of birth and death to show forms of rescue suited to people.

The Liang emperor always faced the dwelling of our teacher Tanluan

and worshiped him as a bodhisattva.

Receiving Pure Land teaching from the Tripitaka master Bodhiruci,

he burned the scriptures for becoming an immortal and relied on the Land of Peace.

Commenting on Vasubandhu’s treatise,

he showed that the cause and fruit of the fulfilled Pure Land depend on Amida’s vow.

Both going to the Pure Land and returning to the deluded world to rescue others depend on merit dedicated through other-power.

The cause that settles birth is entrusting alone.

When ordinary beings stained by delusion awaken entrusting,

they come to know that nirvana is not separate from birth and death.

They surely reach the land of immeasurable light

and guide all beings widely.

Master Daochuo clarified the difficulty of awakening through the practices of the path of sages

and showed the Pure Land way alone as an accessible path in his teaching.

Setting aside reliance on accumulating many good deeds through one’s own power,

he urged exclusive recitation of the Name containing every virtue.

He carefully taught the three shortcomings—trust that is impure, undividedly unsettled, or discontinuous—and the three corresponding qualities of trust.

He compassionately guided alike people in the ages of semblance Dharma, declining Dharma, and the disappearance of the teaching.

Even those who have accumulated harm throughout life, encountering the vast vow,

reach the world of Peace and realize the excellent fruit of awakening.

Master Shandao uniquely and clearly revealed the Buddha’s true intent,

deeply pitying meditators, cultivators of everyday goodness, and those committing grave offences and harm.

He showed the relationship of conditions and causes in the Buddha’s light and Name,

opening the path into the original vow’s great ocean of wisdom.

Those walking it rightly receive a heart of trust unbreakable as vajra.

After a single thought of joy communicates with the Buddha’s heart,

like Queen Vaidehi they receive the three assured responses of joy, awakening, and trust,

Here nin means assured reception of the teaching and a settled heart, not endurance of pain. Idai refers to Queen Vaidehi.

and directly realize the unchanging peace of reality.

Master Genshin widely clarified Shakyamuni’s lifetime teaching,

took sole refuge in the Pure Land of Peace, and recommended it to everyone.

Discerning the depth of exclusive nembutsu and of mixing various practices,

he rightly distinguished the true Pure Land fulfilled by the vow from the land manifested as a means of guidance.

He taught, ‘Even those with exceedingly grave offences should simply recite the Buddha’s name.

I too am within the activity that embraces without abandoning.

Afflictions cover my eyes so I cannot see that light,

yet great compassion tirelessly illuminates me always.’

Our teacher Genkū, Hōnen Shōnin, clarified the Buddha’s teaching

and had compassion for all ordinary people, good and harmful alike.

He established the true Pure Land teaching and path of awakening in distant Japan

and spread the selected original vow in an age of much harm.

He taught, ‘Our repeated return to the house of deluded birth and death

is surely because doubt of the original vow holds us back.

To enter swiftly the still peace beyond calculation,

one surely enters through entrusting.’

The excellent bodhisattvas who spread the sutras and the teachers of the tradition

rescued people in boundless, profound defilement and harm.

Ordained and lay, and all gathered here, let us unite our hearts

and simply trust and receive the teachings of these excellent guides.