Tanluan (Chinese: 曇鸞; Japanese pronunciation: Donran, 476–554) was a Chinese Buddhist monk who wrote on Pure Land Buddhism.
Tanluan was the first East Asian Buddhist to stress the importance of the Buddha's Other Power as a liberating force. He held that through the practice of nianfo (buddha recollection), the Buddha's power would take them to the pure land after death. This doctrine would become very important in later Pure Land Buddhism.
Shinjin (信心) is a central concept in Japanese Pure Land Buddhism which indicates a state of mind which totally entrusts oneself to Amida Buddha's other-power (Japanese: tariki), having utterly abandoned any form of self effort (jiriki) or calculation (hakarai). The term has been variously translated as "faith", "entrusting heart", "true entrusting", "mind of true faith", and so on. It is also often left untranslated in English language publications on Shin Buddhism. It is a key concept in the thought of Shinran (1173–1263), the founder of Jōdo Shinshū. Shinran's concept of shinjin is rooted in the concept of faith found in Indian Pure Land scriptures and in the teachings of the Chinese Pure Land Buddhist masters Tanluan and Shandao, who also emphasized the importance of faith in Amitābha Buddha.
The term Shinjin (Chinese: Xìnxīn) is also used in other Buddhist traditions occasionally, though not as commonly as in Pure Land. The influential early Chan Buddhist poem Xìnxīn Míng (Faith-Mind Inscription) is one example.
Jōdo Shinshū (浄土真宗, "The True Essence of the Pure Land Teaching"), also known as Shin Buddhism or True Pure Land Buddhism, is a Japanese tradition of Pure Land Buddhism founded by Shinran (1173–1263). Shin Buddhism is the most widely practiced branch of Buddhism in Japan, and its membership is claimed to include 10 percent of all Japanese citizens. The school is based on the Pure Land teachings of Shinran, which are based on those of earlier Pure Land masters Hōnen, Shandao and Tanluan, all of whom emphasized the practice of nembutsu (the recitation of Amida Buddha's name) as the primary means to obtain post-mortem birth in the Pure Land of Sukhavati (and thus, Buddhahood).
Shinran taught that enlightenment cannot be realized through one’s own self-power (jiriki), whether by moral cultivation, meditation, or ritual practice, but only through the other-power (tariki) of Amida Buddha’s compassionate Vow. Therefore, in Shin Buddhism, the nembutsu is not a meritorious deed or practice that produces merit and liberation, but an expression of joyful gratitude for the assurance of rebirth in the Pure Land, which has already been granted by Amida’s inconceivable wisdom and compassion. Doctrinally, Jōdo Shinshū is grounded in Shinran’s magnum opus, the Kyōgyōshinshō (Teaching, Practice, Faith, and Realization), which presents a comprehensive exegesis of Pure Land thought based on Indian and Chinese Mahāyāna sources. Shinran’s synthesis reframes the Pure Land path as the culmination of Mahāyāna Buddhism, emphasizing ideas like true faith (shinjin), other-power, the abandonment of self-power, the nembutsu of gratitude, and the all-embracing compassion of Amida Buddha's Original Vow.