MISOGIHARAI

'Purification, or the process of purification; spiritual discipline. It is an equivalent ofshugyO, the Buddhist term for spiritual ascesis or training. The term has different interpretations in different Shinto lineages and may refer to one or more of bodily, mental, behavioural and spiritual purification. The exercises used to achieve these forms ofharai(purity) depend on an interpretation of Shinto as a path of individual spiritual cultivation similar to that of Buddhism and Neo-Confucianism, and therefore combine influences from a variety of Sino-Japanese religious and spiritual sources.

See Misogi and Harae