QUESTION:
There is advice brought in the sefarim hakedoshim that a person should stare at a certain point and keep focusing on it, for example, by starting at the dot in the letter “beis” of the word “beraishis”. Is this a recommended training exercise to help a person become more focused in general?
ANSWER:
It is definitely helpful when it comes to certain stages. Most problems stem from an imbalance in the four elements of the soul, so our approach is to deal with each issue separately, with a more focused kind of therapy. Besides for the focused kind of therapy that is needed for each specific issue, we can also make use of this advice [of focusing on the letter beis in the word beraishis] as a general avodah [inner work] of improving our power of focus. Care should be taken to integrate this with all other ways of avodah, in a way that does not cause any internal pressure. But there are definitely some stages of avodah where it is very important and wonderful to make use of this advice [of focusing on the dot in the letter beis].
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