Selected Primal Vow　選択本願 According to the Larger Sutra, Bodhisattva Dharmākara established Vows with the purpose of creating a land that included the best qualities of all the Buddha Lands. In essence, each of the Forty-eight Vows represents the selection of a particular feature of the land over all others, so that taken together they map out the topography of the Pure Land. This selection is expressed by the word senjaku, which Hōnen established as the principle underlying the formulation of the Primal Vow. In the third chapter of his Senjakushū, Hōnen staes, “The word ‘select (senjaku)’, which occurs in [a translation of the Larger Sutra], means to take up and to reject,” and goes on to demonstrate its applicability to the individual Vows.
　The importance of senjaku for sentient beings lies in the interpretation of the Eighteenth Vow as the rejection of all other practices and the selection of the nembutsu as the single cause of birth in Amida’s Land because it is the practice available to all. Since this is the crucial point in Hōnen’s teaching, senjaku hongan has come to indicate the Eighteenth Vow in particular, in which the saying of the Name as the selected practice is given.