This is Masumi’s Truth. This is not the TRUTH.
Welcome! My Dharma name is Masumi, and I am a Zen student. Masumi means “Clear Truth.” I received Jukai (took the Buddhist precepts) on January 31, 2009. Nine years later, on January 5th, 2018, I declared my intention to study to become a Zen priest, and my teacher agreed to take me on as a student. The commitments I’ve made for 2018 are to sit zazen (meditation) six days a week for an hour a day, to receive training in deeper elements and forms of Zen practice, and to refrain from alcohol for the whole year. Thus, I have taken this dive into the still pond with my whole being.
Masumi’s Truth is a contemplation of Zen practice from the perspective of a lay person on the Path to Buddhist priesthood. As I walk this Path and face unknowns, there may be moments of TRUTH. However, I am not formally a teacher, therefore what you will find here is the truth of the self, my self — you will find my failures and breakdowns as well as my insights. This is why I start this blog with the words “This is Masumi’s Truth. This is not the TRUTH.”
As a convention in this blog, capital letters are used to refer to ultimate REALITY beyond the duality of mind and body. To use a quote from a book,* this REALITY, or IT, is all that which is UNBORN, UNCHANGING, UNDYING, UNCREATED. And therefore, it is sometimes hard to grasp. I have moments when I understand, but it may be just as quickly lost. So know that I, too, am a student, and all life is a classroom.
I hope that I will be ordained as a Buddhist priest in this lifetime, but the important thing is just to be on the Path and sit zazen. Thank you for joining me on this Path.
Masumi,
You’ll make great priest. I look forward to following your truth.