The word "nembutsu" has several meanings in the long history of Buddhism depending on the definition of the word "nen." "Nen" can mean meditating or thinking or pronouncing. Therefore, "nembutsu" can refer to meditating on the special features of the Buddha image, holding to the thought of the Buddha, and pronouncing the name of the Buddha. In Pure Land Lineage of expounded by Shinran in which he reveres Nagarjuna, Vasubandhu, Tanluan, Taochao, Shantao, Genshin and Honen as the 7 Great Masters of the Tradition the "nembutsu" is the saying of Amida Buddha's Name. Honen emphasizes the recitation of Namo-Amida-Butsu as the religious practice selected for us by Amida Buddha. Shinran added another dimension to this thought by saying that the reason Namo-Amida-Butsu even comes to our lips is due to the Compassionate activity of Amida Buddha. He states that the saying of the Name (reciting Namo-Amida-Butsu) is none other than the Name (Myogo in Japanese, the Call of Amida) working in sentient beings, awakening them to shinjin (the great heart and mind of the Buddha: sincere mind, joyfully diamond-like entrusting mind without doubt and the mind aspiring for birth in the Pure Land). When persons realize this shinjin, it is expressed spontaneously as the nembutsu. Rennyo (1415-1499), the 8th Spiritual Leader of the Hongwanji who is a descendant of Shinran, explains that that shinjin given to sentient beings by the Buddha is the cause of our birth in the Pure Land and the nembutsu is recited in sincere and deep appreciation to Amida Buddha. Shinran is known to have said, there is no shinjin separate from nembutsu and there can be no nembutsu separate from shinjin. It has been said that "While there is nothing extraordinary about saying the nembutsu, the realization attached to it, involving one's whole being, evokes an entirely new universe of meaning."