Sweeping Away the Mist

Sweeping Away the Mist

A couple of mornings ago I was walking along the shoreline and visibility on the water was virtually nil. I could hear the blast of the ferry horn, but I could not see a thing on the ocean.

And then as I stood peering into the gray wall in front of me, the fog seemed to clear away as if a curtain were being drawn aside.

I immediately thought of the beautiful phrase in the second part of Ō Harahi no Kotoba that refers to the clearing of the mists.

The morning winds clear the morning mists, and the evening winds clear the evening mists.

That is to say, everything is cleared away in its own time.

In Shinto we practice and pray for harahi: to sweep away tsumi and kegare—the impurities. Return us to our innate, orginal kami-nature. Remove negativity; remove obstacles, restore our brightness.

This process of “sweeping away”—of harahi—is an ongoing cycle, just like the cyclical quality of Nature. And in the clearing of the fog that morning, Nature reminded me of the ceaseless quality of renewal.