While thus vainly seeking his way of release, many years passed on; and he came to be looked up and paid high respect by all his teachers and friends as one whose deep learning and unimpeachable morality were incomparable. His priestly rank advanced, and when he was twenty-five years old, he was made Monzeki (chief priest) of the Shoko-in. All these successes, however, were far from satisfying his noble spirit, which was ever hankering after the truth. His spiritual vexations increased the more. When will the light come to this poor yet earnest truth-seeker?

His twenty-ninth year which he attained in the first year of Kennin (1201 A.D.), still found him in a state of mental uncertainty. Determined to arrive at the settlement of all his doubts, he went daily to the Rokkaku-do, Kyoto, for one hundred days beginning with Jan. 10 of that year, and offered his final prayers to Avalokitecvara Bodhisattva (Kwannon Bosatsu) to suffer him to see the light. At last, he had a vision of the Bosatsu, and through his instruction he went to Yoshimidzu in order to be taught by Honen Shonin. Now, according to his doctrine, all sentient beings were sure to be saved and embraced in the light of Amida [**] and to be born in the Land of Happiness, eternal and imperishable, if they, however sinful, only believe in the name of the Buddha, and, forsaking all their petty cares of the world at present and to come, abandon themselves to his saving hands

so mercifully extended towards all beings, and recite his name with singleness of heart. It was through listening to this doctrine that our Shonin came to remove from his mind every shadow of his spiritual doubt. Then, for the first time, he came to perceive that Amida was the name of his true Father, and could not help realising that, during these twenty-nine years of his existence, his life had ever been actuated by this Father's will to save, and that this true Father, from the very beginning of all things, had unintermittently at work to save his sinful children through his eternal mercy. The Shonin was filled with joy and gratitude unspeakable. To commemorate this occasion of his spiritual regeneration, he was given by his master a new Buddhist name, Shakku. his former adherence to the faith of the Tendai Sect, he now embraced the Pure Land Sect; that is to say, forsaking the

uncertainty of "self-salvation" (jiriki, meaning "self-power"), he became a believer in the efficacy and surety of salvation through a power other than his own (tariki, meaning "other-power").