Trouble pasting background layer to text mask

[ni$mo350]

Exactly like the title says. I'm trying to do step 7 and 8 on this

Photoshop Text Portrait Effect Tutorial - Turn A Photo Into Text With Photoshop

But every time I select my background and copy it and try to paste it in the layer mask on the text layer it pastes it to a whole other layer above the text layer. It's not letting me paste anything in the layer mask field. I've tried it on 3 different pics and the outcome is that same on all of them. Your help would be appreciated. Thanks -Chris-

 

[iDad]

create your text then merge your layers but you lose the editing ability of text in newly merged layer, so keep your other layers saved separately. to refer back to later...I think that's what your saying anyway, Good luck.