 Issues of hermeneutics are central to the Japanese Pure Land tradition because of the breach it asserts between the ordinary awareness of beings and the enlightened wisdom-compassion of the Buddha, which is the source and ultimate content of the teaching. This is not, of course, a problem limited to the Pure Land tradition, but has engaged Buddhist tradition from the time of Sakyamuni. Nevertheless, communicating its teaching raises special difficulties for Hōnen’s Pure Land thought because of its thoroughly negative assessment of human capacities of comprehension. It views human understanding as constantly subject to the distortions of self-attachment. Thus, for the teaching to be authentically grasped, two conditions must arise. First, the Buddhas—Amida, Sakyamuni, and the Buddhas of the cosmos—must actively work to bridge the gap between dharma and beings’ ignorance, enabling beings’ apprehension of the vow. Second, a shift or transformation of awareness must emerge in beings.