Likutay Moharan - Volume 2 - Torah-teaching 122

Regarding Foreign Thoughts in Prayer

Regarding foreign thoughts in tefillah [prayer], and it is already known that every thought is a complete structure, as brought. And he said that when a person stands and prays in order and does not pay attention to the foreign thoughts, and through this he overcomes them and removes them from himself [and as explained elsewhere, that one should not look at them at all, but go in order in his tefillah and not look back at all, and through this they will naturally depart], then in the course of his going in his tefillah, he fells them: to this one he cuts a hand, and to that one he cuts a foot, and the like with other limbs. Meaning, like for example in the matter of war, when one needs to go and pass among many murderers and ambushers, and when he is a hero and passes among them, then in the course of his going, he fells them, for to this one he cuts a hand in the course of his going and fells him, and to that one he cuts a foot, etc., and the like. So it is exactly in the matter of tefillah, that when one prays in order and does not pay attention to the foreign thoughts and pushes them away and fells them, then in the course of his going in his tefillah, he cuts to this one a hand and to that one a foot, etc., as above. For every foreign thought is a husk, and it is a complete structure, as brought. And when one overcomes to pray in order and not look at them, then he kills them or cuts from them limb by limb, as above.