I was cleaning the ceiling fan today, and I realized how difficult it was to remove the dust that was imbued on the wooden blades. Like the dusts that accumulate on our mirrors, it is easily removed if done daily, but if left for a long periods of time, the dust is difficult to remove. What does this topic have to do with religion?

In the Heaven’s Truth Religion (Tenrikyo), the thoughts of greed, arrogance, and self-love are called dusts. These dusts or sins need to be eliminated from our minds, for God to give us salvation or blessings. But like the dusts that collect on the fans for long periods of time, they become difficult to remove. It takes much will power and commitment to eliminate these sins or dusts from our minds. For many of us, the shedding of these dusts is a very slow process, many times accumulating more dusts when inconveniences or sufferings occur. This is why it is difficult for a person to remove anger, even thought he or she knows that it is inappropriate and not accepted by God. But it is important that we remove these dusts from our minds for God to give us his blessings.