this world, in order to cleanse the heart, to sanctify the conduct, and to be thoroughly imbued with the purest religious sentiment, and who by virtue of these unworldly merits was permitted to be born in the country of the Buddha. The Shonin, on the contrary, married Princess Tamahi and lived a family life, even after his confirmation in the Buddhist faith.

Four sons and three daughters were born through this union. The first, third, fourth, and fifth children were sons who were named respectively, Han-i, Zenran, Myoshin, and Dosho; while the second, sixth, and seventh were daughters, whose names were: Masa-hime, Saga-hime, and Iya-hime. The Shonin could not help but deeply love these children, so dear to the heart of the father that he once confessed with a truly human weakness: "I am the one who, not knowing how to be blessed by the saving love of Amida,

is drowned in the tempest of passion and has lost his way in the mountains of worldliness." The founder of the True Sect, thus unlike most religious leaders, was a husband and father, who loved his family with all his heart and found his salvation in the eternal love of Amida.

It is due to this fact that in the True Sect of Pure Land there is no distinction made between the monk and the layman as regards their outward religious practice; while in all the other Buddhist sects the monk leads a life of celibacy and refrains from eating the animal's flesh, the followers of the True Sect have no such special order among them, for their "monks" marry and eat meat. Their religious life, therefore, consists in continuing to live an ordinary, everyday human life, not necessarily struggling to free themselves from the so-called "defilements" of the flesh, and in leaving the grave matter of

salvation entirely in the saving hands of Amida; for theirs is only to be grateful for the Buddha's saving love and to express this gratitude by the observance of all the moral laws and the efficient execution of their respective duties. This faith and this way of living were exemplified by our venerable Shinran Shonin, the Founder of the True Sect of Pure Land.

The Shonin had many devoted disciples, among whom the following were the most noted: Shoshin, Shimbutsu, Jun-shin, Muyishin, Myoho, Yuiyen, Nyusai, Saibutsu, Kakushin, Ren-yi, etc. There were among these disciples some who had at first entertained an idea to murder the master, imagining him to be the enemy of Buddhism; but as soon as they approached the Shonin, his personality so powerfully impressed them that they at once abandoned the evil design and became the most devoted of his disciples. There were, again,