great practice　大行 In common with othr schools of Mahayana Buddhism in East Asia, Shinran teaches the progression through teaching, practice, and realization on the path to supreme enlighten­ment. Although Shin Buddhism may be described as a religion of salvation, at the same time it adheres to this basic structure of the three pillars. The concept of practice is central to Shinran’s thought. This practice includes two components: the act of saying the Name, and the Sacred Name that is vocalized. Both are mentioned in the discussion of great practice in “Chapter on Practice” and Passages on the Pure Land Way: “The great practice is to say the name of the Tathagata of unhindered light.” And later: “Saying the Name is in itself mindfulness; mindfulness is the nembutsu; the nembutsu is Namo-amida-butsu.” In the first passage, “great” practice indicates that saying the Name has its source in the working of the Buddha and not in human beings, and “practice” means that it enables a person to realize supreme enlightenment. Moreover, in the second passage, saying the Name is identified with shinjin, which is mindfulness. Taking these two passages together, great practice is the Name itself as the consummation of the Primal Vow, and at the same time it is the working of the Name to awaken shinjin, expressed as the saying of the Name. The absolute nature of the Name is attested to by all the Buddhas who praise its working, as stated in the Seventeenth Vow and in the passage on its fulfillment; the latter is quoted as revealing the nature of great practice.