section 52. Amida, it is said, has two qualities (toku) whereby He saves us--Mercy and Wisdom. We, sentient Beings, travail in pain (kumon shite orimasu), being fast bound in a kind of slavery to sin and evil, and from this we cannot free ourselves, because the fetters have been fastened on us by the Karma of an immemorial past. And Karma has relations not only with the past. It affects our present condition, it brings with it an endless chain of re-birth, life, and death, which stretches away into the boundless future. From this bondage Amida delivers us. He looses the bonds of sin and evil by the Might accruing to Him from His Great Vow, with His Light He illuminates our minds, giving us supernatural and glorious Wisdom, of His Mercy he places us in a position equal to His own, practically giving us power to become 'sons of God.' For the above reasons the Shinshuist speaks of his Salvation as the Salvation of Amida.