Buddhist Psalms translated from the Japanese of Shinran Shonin

by Shinran

297. If the prince committeth a sin against his Father, even the Chakravarti, the King, he is fettered as a prisoner, though the chain be of gold.

298. Whoso reciteth the Holy Name, and so doeth as a work of self-merit, shall be bound in the prison of the sevenfold gems, for he believeth not right by the divine promise of that Holy One, and heavy is the sin of his doubting.

299. Yet he even that hath a doubting soul and sinneth the sin of self-merit, must needs strive to comprehend the merciful goodness of the Blessed One, and he shall recite the Holy Name if he would at all be equalled unto him that holdeth the true faith.

300. It is the Law that he who soweth shall reap what he soweth, therefore the man that is full of righteous deeds for the sake of self-merit shall enter into the prison of the sevenfold gems, for he doubteth the marvellous wisdom of Him that hath the Light.

301. Whoso doubteth of the wisdom of Him that hath Light beyond the imagining of man, and trusteth to the root of goodness and virtue—he shall not attain unto the Soul of Great Mercy, for he is born into the Outermost Places of Paradise, and slow and dull of heart is he.

302. Among those men that doubt the Holy Word, some are imprisoned in the shut bud of the Lotus. And they shall be despised as they that in illusion are born into the outermost Paradise or are held captive within the narrow walls of the womb.

303. Whoso doubteth the omniscience of the wisdom of the Light-Bearer, but holdeth to his belief in Reward, excellent ofttimes in making the root of goodness to grow,

304. Because he doubteth the wisdom of the Eternal Wisdom, and is held captive as in the strait prison of the womb, hath neither knowledge nor wisdom, and is compared unto a man straitly bound in captivity.

305. He that is born into the outermost place, all glorious with the sevenfold jewels, shall not in five hundred years behold that three-fold jewel, the Tri-ratna, for there is in him no spiritual well-doing, that he should give it unto his fellow-men.

306. To him who is born into the Palace, glorious with the seven jewels, for five hundred years there shall befall many sorts of sorrows from his own evil doing.