This is a term appearing in the Scriptures.

In our lives in general, it is important to sweep and clean--for instance, sweep our rooms and backyards. Cleaning our living environment, as well as cleaning our bodies by taking a shower or a bath, has a positive effect on making our minds clear and pure as well. Tenrikyo emphasizes the importance of sweeping and cleaning, both as part of day-to-day church life and as hinokishin activity beneficial to society. This emphasis comes from the teaching of "sweeping the mind."

Sweeping the mind clean--which is one of the first areas to be addressed in the faith of Tenrikyo--is referred to by a variety of metaphors. The Mikagura-uta, The Songs for the Service, says:

God, the same as water,
Washes away the dirts from your minds.

V:3

This verse uses the word "dirt" to refer to that which should be removed from the mind and speaks about washing the mind. This represents one way of teaching "sweeping" or "cleaning" the mind.

Set out anew on the one path of sweeping that leaves no corner unswept. You will need tools for sweeping, tools for putting things away, tools for settling, and tools for wiping. Always sweep. Sweep there, sweep here. Sweep all corners. If you wonder where to sweep, it is the mind that you should sweep.

Osashizu, March 29, 1888

What should be removed from the mind includes "dust" and "causality" ("bad causation").

The "dust" refers to unskillful uses of the mind including what is called "eight dusts"--which may have an ethical overtone--and what the Ofudesaki calls "falsehood and flattery," referring to a mind state that is insincere with God and thus addressing faithfulness. Also included in the dust are states of mind that give rise to what is called "wrongdoing" (Ofudesaki XIII:41-49), which brings miseries to one another, even though those mind states themselves might go unnoticed.

It is God who effects the sweeping of dust (Ofudesaki III:52). Concerning how God sweeps, the Ofudesaki speaks of "returns" given by God. This term indicates steps (or countermeasures) taken for the purpose of salvation. There are two sorts of "returns." One is called "withdrawal" (meaning God the Parent withdrawing the blessings), and the other is "entering" (God the Parent taking the initiative to provide blessings).

Our dust of mind hinders God the Parent from providing for us or protecting the human environment and gives rise to the "regret" of God the Parent. When we fall "out of the hands of God" (the blessing hands of God), we might encounter natural disasters, social upheavals, or changes in individual circumstances (such as illnesses and other troubles) (Ofudesaki VI:88-96, 114-117, VIII:51-59). When we are faced with such manifestations of the "regret" of God the Parent, we would do best to reflect critically on ourselves. A Divine Direction says:

The human body is a thing lent, a thing borrowed. Each way you have used your mind is reflected in this world. You have been born and reborn into this world many times. Each way you have used your mind is shown.

Osashizu, January 8, 1888

It is thus important to let such occurrences remind us to sweep the mind.

Nevertheless, we tend to neglect the sweeping unless we find ourselves in a situation that forces us to do so. Therefore, God the Parent undertakes the sweeping of our individual minds. God the Parent tries to make us aware of how the true sincerity of our minds is covered by dust and bound by causality. (God the Parent enters and works through us and other Yoboku to accomplish this.) Such workings of God the Parent lead us to engage in repentance or guide us on how to awaken through the illnesses we experience.

When we find ourselves in such situations, we are given an opportunity to reflect on our dust of mind and realize our causality. (Even when we encounter illnesses--which reflect the first sort of "returns," namely, "withdrawal"--we are assured of blessings of a cure by the second sort of "returns," that is, God the Parent's "entering" to provide blessings.) All these workings of God the Parent are forms of "sweeping," designed to help sweep dust and causality from our minds, thereby making it clear and clean, so that we can live the Joyous Life.

Sweeping is an issue that receives constant attention in the course of followers' lives of faith. In the Ofudesaki, too, we find such concrete references as "I shall clean the Residence" (I:29-30).

Sweeping aims at the purification of the mind so that we may know the truth (or God can make the truth known to us) (Ofudesaki II:25-30, XII:70-84).

From now, I shall plunge into the pond in the high mountains and clear it of mud, whatever kind it may be.

If I only remove the mud from it completely, the remaining water will be clear.

Ofudesaki II:29-30

As I desire to purify the mind of everyone throughout the world, there is no knowing what Tsukihi will do.

Ofudesaki XII:77

Once we awaken to the reality of God's realm and embrace faith in God the Parent, we can understand any teaching we may hear. If we understand the divine intention by listening to God the Parent's teachings with a purified mind, then the path that allows us to sweep away dust and work off our accumulated causal force will open up before us.