But, like Genku, Shinran found himself bewildered by the extraordinary comprehensiveness and multiplicity of the Tendai system. The Tendai may de described as a brave attempt, but one hopeless of success, to unite into one comprehensive system all the various religious influences and streams of teachings which had come into China since the first introduction of Buddhism and other Indian and Central Asian beliefs, and, in Japan, particularly, to harmonize all these with the native tenets of the ancient Shinto, in such a way as to assure the supremacy of the Crown over all causes within the bounds of the Empire. But the Tendai had conspired with the Fujiwara and other ambitious Houses, and the Crown was no longer a free agent. Shinran, we are told, "studied widely and deeply," and found that all the doctrines he met with in the various branches of the Tendai philosophy were "holy and pure," but that they did not satisfy his soul. The unrest of the times had seized him, and his whole nature clamoured for light. Study and books had failed to give him what he wanted, and he betook himself to prayer, going from shrine to shrine, and from idol to idol, to proffer his petitions.

At last, in the Rokkakudo, or "Hexagonal Temple," before an image of Kwannon, he gained the

light he wanted. Let us pause for a moment to enquire what this Kwannon implied to Shinran, in his then state of Faith. Amida (and the Tendai also worship Amida, though not with the exclusive devotion of the Jodo sects), the ideal Buddha, the Father of all, who desires that all men should be saved, has two special qualities--Mercy and Wisdom. These two qualities take visible forms and show themselves to men, the one in Avalokites'vara or Kwannon [**] (his son), who is the Embodiment of his Compassion, capable of manifestation in many forms and shapes for purposes of practical succour, the other in Seishi (Skt. Mahasthatnaprapta), of whom I have never read that he was ever manifested in fleshly form, [*+] but who is considered to be the spiritual manifestation of the Wisdom of God. The Three, therefore, are at once distinct in Person, and one in Essence, and bear a striking resemblance to the Unity of Three Persons in our Christian Trinity. There is an Amidaist school even in Tendai, and Shinran must have known of it, when, praying for guidance, he knelt before the Kwannon of the Hexagon Temple.

To him came the answer in the shape of a vision of Kwannon, the Lord of Mercy after whom he was feeling, and the Vision said, "Go to Genku,

the Holy Hermit of Kurodani, and he shall teach you." So Shinran went to Genku, and became his most distinguished disciple.