Good morning. This is Yukihiro Shima of Oubaitori.com. My day began, as it always does, with 10,000 Daimoku. And while I was chanting this morning, one quiet question rose up in me: “What does my heart truly want?” I want to share that single question with you today.
The answer that came was simple: to live honestly
When I chant, there are moments when I meet myself at a slightly deeper place than usual. This morning, the answer that rose up when I asked my own heart was very simple. I want to live honestly. Just that.
To live true to my heart as it is. And, staying true to that honest heart, to keep moving toward the things I hope for. Not decorating myself, not forcing a brave face — just being honest about what is really inside. Said plainly, it sounds obvious. Yet holding to it, day after day, is not so easy, is it? What about your own heart, I wonder.
August 1st — a month to live true to my own heart
Today is August 1st, 2026 — the very first day of a new month. A day that marks a turn is a good day to renew the heart. Through this month of August, I want to live in my own way, true to my own heart. Twenty-four hours a day, thirty-one days — I want to live each single day fully.
Rather than raising some grand goal, I want to evolve one small step at a time, in my own way, each day. And at the end of the day, to be able to say, “Today, too, I am satisfied.” I want to gather up that fresh, first-time kind of satisfaction, day by day. It is in that quiet accumulation, I believe, that a life without regret is found.
At any age, a small challenge makes the heart glad
Summer break has arrived, and our family’s yearly tradition — our “summer camp with the grandchildren” — is about to begin! To tell the truth, I recently started a small challenge of my own: the electronic piano. Right now I am fumbling my way through a piece called “Mother.” When my grandchildren come to visit over the break, I hope I can play for them — even just a single bar of it — with all my heart. If their grandpa suddenly started playing the piano, what expressions would cross their faces? Just imagining it fills me with excitement.
At any age, a person can take on a challenge. In the end, it comes down to your own spirit — to the heart. However small the challenge may be, the honest heart that turns toward it rejoices greatly. And that joy, I think, is what makes a single day, and a whole life, shine a little more.
Let’s Daimoku. May today be a wonderful day for you. And through this month, let us walk on together, each in our own way.
🙏 From Yukihiro Shima — Oubaitori.com
Bloom your own way, at your very best.
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