This paper takes up Shinran’s interpretation of “the aspiration to leave birth and death.” In the Songō shinzō meimon 尊号真像銘文, Shinran provides his interpretation of several passages from Hōnen’s Senjakushū 選択集. One of the passages includes a problem about the aspiration to leave birth and death 欲離生死. Originally, aspiration is something that is required of the readers of the Senjakushū, but the Songō shinzō meimon interprets this as something that Hōnen commands. This interpretation is strange even when compared with other strange readings that Shinran provides in his other works, but when we read the Eshinni shōsoku 恵信尼消息 that describes Shinran’s experiences, we can understand that this interpretation originated from Shinran’s personal experience.
