directing virtue　回向 Ekō lit., “turning toward another” or “redirecting”; often rendered “merit-transference”. Ekō, a central concept of Mahayana thought, was born in the bodhisattva tradition, in which religious practices are undertaken for the benefit not only of oneself but of others also. It is the working of great compassion, which transcends the principle of bondage to one’s own karma. The deep wish or vow of the bodhisattva is for the spiritual and moral elevation of all beings, traditionally expressed as “going out from birth-and-death”. Therefore, it is only natural that he or she share his acomplishments with others. This sharing or turning over, however, does not involve any form of sacrifice, for it is an act of compassion performed in nondichotomous thinking and feeling.
In other schools of Buddhism, ekō signifies one’s directing of merit toward one’s own and othrs’ attainment of enlightenment, and in traditional Pure Land Buddhism, which confronted practically the tremendous difficulties of the bodhisattva path, ekō came to mean the directing of one’s merits not toward others but toward the attainment of birth in the Pure Land, where one could realize enlightenment and then return to this world to work for the liberation of all beings.
Shinran, however, viewed ekō from the opposite perspective and used the term to signify the Enlightened One’s (Amida Buddha’s) directing and giving virtues to practicers. Shinran speaks of two modes of giving: One is outgoing or ōsō ekō (i.e., outward from birth-and-death), which effects man’s birth in the Pure Land. Thus, the Name working in the nembutsu―and shinjin as its realization by us―are said to be given by Other Power. The second is returning or gensō ekō (into birth-and-death), by which the person of shinjin comes back into the difiled world in order to work for the enlightenment of all beings. Both activities are manifestations of the working of Amida, that is, of Amida’s directing virtue to us.