Mental health counselors often recommend that clients clean their home environments every day. Dirt and squalor can be symptoms of unhappiness or illness.
But cleanliness is not only about mental health. It is the most basic practice that all forms of Japanese Buddhism have in common. In Japanese Buddhism, it is said that what you must do in the pursuit of your spirituality is clean, clean, clean. This is because the practice of cleaning is powerful.
The routines whereby we sweep, wipe, polish, wash and tidy are one step on the path towards inner peace. The self is not separated from its environment, and cleaning expresses our respect for and sense of wholeness with the world that surrounds us.
After you start cleaning your home, you can extend cleaning practice to other things, including your body. You can even apply cleaning practice to your mind – if you practise cleaning, cleaning and more cleaning, you will eventually know that you have been cleaning your inner world along with the outer one.