 In terms of reception, some among Hōnen’s disciples further emphasized the action of Amida and Sakyamuni in guiding and actively bringing beings to trust in the vow. While the Chinzei branch of Hōnen’s Pure Land school sought to temper the master’s sweeping rejection of other practices by recognizing the possibility of attaining birth through the various meditative and nonmeditative practices set forth in the Contemplation Sutra, Shōkū and his Seizan branch taught that the intent of the sutra is precisely to lead people to awareness that birth is possible only through the nembutsu. In the latter view, the various contemplative exercises and the disciplines and study taught by the sutra are meant to reveal the wisdom-compassion of the vow, which grasps all beings without discrimination, whatever their capacity. Since in the sutra beings attain birth regardless of their particular level or kind of practice, it is not that those practices are being prescribed; rather, the sutra intends to show that the actual cause of birth lies not in any such practices, but solely in Amida’s vow. In other words, the sutra teachings are not to be taken literally and prescriptively, but as means to awaken beings so that they come to entrust themselves to the vow.