Concerning shinjin, what can we do about it?
What on earth can you do about it? Your (true) features when born, the same old you just like before hearing the Dharma! Doesn’t it mean that I won’t be able to attain birth? Yes, it does. You won’t make it (birth)! As you (this good-for-nothing) won’t make it, it only requires the Tathagata to fasten the lock of the Vow-power around your waist and pull you along. The Pure Land is not devised for unordinary people.
Isn’t it like gold ingots falling from heaven (a windfall)?
Indeed. If you cannot listen to or are deaf to this very special great Vow (*betchi no gugan 別異の弘願), you won’t be able to enter the White Path of the Primal Vow. It is the 18th Vow that surpasses the ordinary causes and effects of our world! It is *shukuzen! Even so, you are still invited to try listening with astonishment.
Zuiken (an extract)
*betchi no gugan 別異の弘願 The very special great vow. Amida's vows distinguish themselves from those of other Buddhas in that they promise salvation for ordinary beings filled with evil passions. In this sense, the term specifically refers to his eighteenth vow. The term comes from Shan-tao's Commentary on the Contemplation Sutra, in the section on the "Essential Meaning" (Gengibun 玄義分). See hongan; hongan no mon. [AK.; KG.6]
*shukuzen Karmic virtue; stored merits in one's past lives.
Please read: Amida's Primal Vow Accords with the Nature of Beings
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