(last update November 26th 2018 - scroll down to read)
Question:
Can a person who did not entrust to Amida
Buddha during his life, change his mind and entrust while in the intermediate
state between death and the next rebirth (bardo)?
Answer:
I do not recall any passage from Shinran,
Rennyo, Honen or other Patriarch of our lineage in which liberation through faith
while in bardo was specifically mentioned, but I personally think it is possible.
In fact, Shinran too, said a few times in his writings that beings who are born
in the Pure Land of Amida Buddha „are not solely from this world”[1], so I don’t see why a bardo being cannot
go there if he comes in accord with
Amida’s Primal Vow, that is, if he entrusts to Him, says His Name and wishes to
go His Pure Land. The Primal Vow itself is
all inclusive as Amida does not say there that only human beings can go
to His Pure Land (- see my explanations of The meaning of "sentient beings of the ten quarters" from the Primal Vow).