Deborah Lipp

I often meditate while cleaning. Specifically, while cleaning my altar or while preparing my home for ritual. This is a focused meditation, clearing the mind and thinking about meaning while I clean.

So I was delighted to find this blog post about cleaning in a Zen context, that mentions meditating while cleaning.

I like to think of a Zen monk sweeping the floors of a temple when I sweep. It’s corny, maybe, but it really helps me focus on the sweeping, and it’s a form of meditation. In this way, I actually enjoy the cleaning, although I’d rather be writing to be honest.

I think she’s slipping here. The trick is to stay in the moment, and not engage with what you’d rather be doing. Be here now.

So, suppose I’m scrubbing the tub for a ritual bath. I hate scrubbing the tub. It makes my back ache, it’s physically awkward, and frankly it never resuls in the Clean Tub I’d like, just a clean tub, if you know what I mean. I want it to sparkle like it’s new and it doesn’t.

But here’s what I do. I center myself, and visual the bath I’ll be taking. I align myself with a ritual purpose. I am doing ritual, just as much as I will be when I’m in the bath. Now, you can just do that, visualize bathing as you scrub, visualize having ritual seated on the carpet while you vacuum, and so on.

But I add a cognitive component: As I scrub, I meditate on the meaning of cleanliness, or of this particular bath. What does it mean to be spiritually clean? As I clean the temple, vacuum the rug, wash the altar, I ask myself about the inner nature of the temple, of the altar. As I dust my private worship altar, I meditate on the relationship I have with that altar. What does it mean to clean the idol, to serve the deity in that way?

These are deep meditations that can take me on interesting journeys. I value them.

And while I will never love the dishpan hands, or scrubbing the tub, doing these meditations takes me far beyond what I’d “rather be” doing and allows me to be fully present for a spiritual task.