Blind Passions

Pureland Buddhism is for people of blind passions. What does this mean? Here's a piece I like quoted by John Paraskevopoulos by the translators involved in the Shin Buddhism Translation Series.

"Blind passion (bonno) is a comprehensive term descriptive of all the forces, conscious and unconscious, that propel the unenlightened person to think, feel, act and speak - whether in happiness or sorrow - in such a way as to cause uneasiness, frustration, torment and pain and sorrow mentally, emotionally, spiritually, and even physically for themselves and others. While Buddhism makes a detailed and subtle analysis of blind passion, employing such terms as craving, anger, delusion, arrogance, doubt and wrong views, fundamentally it is rooted in the fierce, stubborn clinging to the foolish and evil self that constitutes the basis of our existence. When we realize the full implications of this truth about ourselves, we see that the human condition is itself nothing but blind passion. Thus, just to live, or wanting to live, as an unenlightened being is to manifest blind passion at all times, regardless of what we may appear to be. One comes to know this, however, only through the illumination of great compassion. Hence, awakening to one's own nature is called the wisdom of shinjin, and the person who realizes it has already been grasped by the Primal Vow."