being called the Shin Shu, it is also spoken of as the J[=o]-d[=o] Shin
Shu or the True Sect of the Pure Land. It is the extreme form of the
Protestantism of Buddhism. It lays emphasis on the idea of salvation
wholly through the merits of another, but it also paints in richer tints
the sensuous delights of the Western Paradise. As the term Pure Land is
antithetical to that of the Holy Path, so the word Shin, or True,
expresses the contrary of what are termed the "temporary expedients."

While some say that we should practise good works, bring our stock of
merits to maturity, and be born in the Pure Land, others say that we
need only repeat the name of Amida in order to be born in the Pure Land,
by the merit produced from such repetition. These doctrines concerning
repetitions, however, are all considered but "temporary expedients." So
also is the rigid classification, so prominent in "the old sects," of
all beings or pupils into three grades. As in Islam or Calvinism, all
believers stand on a level. To Shin-ran the Radical, the practices even
of J[=o]-d[=o] seemed complicated and difficult, and all that appeared
necessary to him was faith in the desire of Amida to bless and save. To
Shinran,[9] faith was the sole saving act.

To rely upon the power of the Original Prayer of Amitabha Buddha with
the whole heart and give up all idea of _ji-riki_ or self-power, is
called the truth. This truth is the doctrine of this sect of Shin.[10]
In a word, not synergism, not faith _and_ works, but faith only is the
teaching of Shin Shu.

Shinran, the founder of this sect in Japan, was born A.D. 1173 and died
in the year 1262. He was very naturally one who had been first educated
in the J[=o]-d[=o] sect, then the ruling one at the imperial court in
Ki[=o]to. Shall we call him a Japanese Luther, because of his insistence