Letters
A Collection of Letters
6
I have carefully read your letter of the ninth month, 27th
day. On the 9th day of the eleventh month, I received your
gift of money in the amount of five kanmon.
I find it indeed deplorable that people in the various areas
are saying in different ways that it is meaningless for people
of the countryside to have all been saying the nembutsu for
years. Although they have copied and possessed various writings,
how have they been reading them? It makes me feel extremely
apprehensive.
I have heard that about ninety of the people who had gathered
around Chutaro of Obu have all followed you and abandoned
the lay-monk Chutaro, because you, having traveled there from
Kyoto, declared that only the teaching you have heard here
is true and that all their saying of the nembutsu for years
is meaningless. How has such a thing come about? It appears
to me that, in short, their shinjin had not been settled.
How is it that so many people could have been shaken? I find
it lamentable. Since there are rumors of this kind, there
must also be many false statements. Further, since I have
heard that I am being accused of favoritism, I made great
efforts to write down the meaning of Essentials of Faith
Alone, On the Afterlife, and Self-power and Other Power,
and also the Parable of the Two Rivers, and to distribute
them to people. But I hear that they have all become useless.
How have you been teaching the people? I hear you are saying
incomprehensible things and am troubled by it. Please explain
matters to me in detail.
Respectfully.
Eleventh month, 9th day
Shinran
To: Jishin-bo
I have duly received your reports concerning Shinbutsu-bo,
Shoshin-bo, and Nyushin-bo. Although I find it deeply lamentable,
there is nothing I can do about it. It is also beyond my powers
to correct others who do not have the same mind. Since people
are not of the same mind, it is useless to say one thing or
another. At this point, you should not speak about others.
Please take this fully to heart.
Shinran
To: Jishin-bo
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