“There was once a nun in the Ninnaji temple who came to Honen, and with a tone of sadness in her voice, said she had made a vow to read the Hokke Sutra (Lotus Sutra) a thousand times over. She had already finished reading it seven hundred times, but as she was now getting quite old, she did not know how to obtain the merit of doing the rest. Then Honen said, ‘You have indeed done well despite your age to read it over seven hundred times. As to the other three hundred, the best thing to do is to apply your whole mind to one thing, and that is the practice of the Nembutsu’.
She took his advice, gave up the reading, and did nothing but call upon the sacred Name all the rest of her life, till she at last attained Ojo (birth in the Pure Land).
In the village of Shiraku, in the province of Tango, there was a cloister called Mirokuji, the abb...