Part 2: On the Verge of Lishma - Selected Excerpts from the Sources. #8.

Hello, the topic of our lesson is On the Verge of Lishma. We're studying selected excerpts from the writings of the Kabbalists. We are in Excerpt Number Eight.

Reading: (00:22) 8. Baal HaSulam, "One Commandment"

It is hopeless to wait for a time when a solution is found that enables one to begin the work of the Creator in Lishma. As in the past, so is now, and so will it be: Every servant of the Creator must begin the work in Lo Lishma, and from that achieve Lishma.

The way to achieve this degree is not limited by time, but by his qualifiers, and by the measure of one’s control over one’s heart. Hence, many have fallen and will fall in the field of working Lo Lishma and will die without wisdom. Yet, their reward is nevertheless great, since one’s mind cannot appreciate the true merit and value of bringing contentment to one’s Maker. Even if one works not under this condition, since one is not worthy of another way, one still brings contentment to one’s Maker. This is called “unintentionally.” 

M. Laitman: Clear? 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (02:17) He says that the way depends not on time but on its qualifiers and one's control over one's heart.

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: Can you explain this?

M. Laitman: As much as a person can control his heart, according to that, he can perform corrections.

Student: How does one control one's heart? 

M. Laitman: He needs a bigger desire to control the smaller desire. 

Student: We're saying that only the environment, the light, and the friends, this is what?

M. Laitman: All in all, a person can change his desires in a way that one desire will control a different desire; in this way, he will correct it. 

Student: We heard many questions today from friends about how to make a desire, such as we have now in the lesson, will control us throughout the day and not only while we're learning. 

M. Laitman: If we will be in a society that everyone around everybody, we're talking, we're respecting, we're concerned only of raising the Creator above. So, in this way, we'll advance.

Student: So, that's the meaning of controlling one's heart? 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (04:12) He says, many have fallen and will fall in the field of Lo Lishma. Did they fall because they were not worthy of another way or because they didn't make enough efforts, which is correct? 

M. Laitman:  What's correct? I don't know, one out of the two.

Student: Why should one look at oneself all the time that he is worthy but not making enough efforts? Is this the right approach?

M. Laitman:  Yes?

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (04:50) We learn in spirituality that what keeps the desire is the screen, what guards it is the screen.

M. Laitman: Well?

Student: Can you explain how a screen?

M. Laitman: I can't explain that, it doesn't belong.

Student: We're reading here about Lishma and Lo Lishma, for her sake and not for her sake. How does Lishma guard the desire so it will be correct work; and how does Lo Lishma, not for her sake, limit the desire or make her use the desire incorrectly? 

M. Laitman: Because that's how it is. To use the desire correctly is in order to bestow contentment to the Creator, that's called Lishma. 

Student: What is it there that makes the desire, causes the correct use of the desire? What is this Lishma, what is it there that protects the desire so we don't use this desire not in a good way?

M. Laitman: Illumination – the right desire holds inside it an extent of illumination that holds it and directs it, correctly. 

Student: Where does it direct him? 

M. Laitman: Towards bestowal. 

Student: In this world, how is it expressed? A person wants to sit, and eat, and drink a cup of water, Lishma? 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: How is it expressed, the same action. I look at a person who is drinking a glass of water, another person drinks another glass of water – one is Lishma, one is Lo Lishma, what's the difference? 

M. Laitman: You don't see his desire.

Student: Let's say he had a microscope that could look into their intentions, what is this about their intention? 

M. Laitman: In order to bestow either to himself or to the Creator. 

Student: What does it mean that I'm drinking water for the Creator?

M. Laitman: That, in that action, you want to cause Him contentment. 

Student: How? How do I bring contentment to the Creator by drinking water?

M. Laitman: By drinking? 

Question ( Petah Tikva Center): (07:38) What did those many who fell in the field of Lo Lishma, Why did they fall? We have many people who fell in this engagement in Lo Lishma, what did they fall over? 

M. Laitman: They wanted to reach Lishma and weren't able to. But on the way, they were in Lo Lishma and they couldn't advance onward.

Student: Because, for what reason?

M. Laitman: Lack of a desire. 

Student: Why did they run out of fuel? 

M. Laitman: That, each one from their own reasons.

Student: So, they fell because the Creator dropped them or because they dropped themselves? 

M. Laitman: Well, because they dropped themselves they couldn't find a way how to receive forces to a greater Lishma. 

Student: And now does one receive the strength for a greater Lishma?

M. Laitman: Prayer to the Creator.

Student: I'm asking about us because he writes here, many will fall in this field, meaning from among us, many will fall, too?

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: So how do we guarantee how do we work correctly in this business? 

M. Laitman: How to work correctly in this business? Torah and commandments, meaning that we try to connect and pass forces to one another. And each one with the others strengthens the friends in a way that between us we build a center of a force, a Ten. That, specifically, with them, we have the powers to constantly be directed towards the center of creation. And in this way, we advance.

Student: So, those who fall along the way, it's a sign that he's not thinking of the friends or not absorbing power from the friends? 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: How does the Convention, because this whole topic of Lishma is like a fast track to the Convention. How is the convention supposed to help us or prevent us from falling and build like a strong center of the group that will hold everyone? 

M. Laitman: By wanting to be connected between us. To discover in the force of connection. In the force of connection to discover a force that will hold us and obligate us to, in the connection between us to be in one desire. And to want that one desire to hold us all together and will raise all of us to Him, to the connection to Him – to a hug with Him. That we are all as one and He is hugging us, and we are all connecting to Him. That is all that we want to attain in the Congress. 

Student: From where will we get such a desire? You said we want to be connected to Him, we want to be in an embrace with Him. From where do we get such a desire?

M. Laitman: From our exercises, from wanting the connection.

Student: What exercise awakens a desire for connection? 

M. Laitman: That, everything that we want, everything that we're working in is only in order to reach a state where each one feels that the others hold him. Otherwise, he has no reason how to hold himself in spirituality. Only if he annuls towards it, towards the others and they're connected; and they hold him.

Student: To want connection, is that to want Lishma? 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: There are many friends here who truly are willing to give themselves, to cut off their hands and legs, as Baal HaSulam says, to do everything for the goal, they want Lishma. How do we make it burst out, erupt? How do we create such conditions that will allow these friends to rise up? 

M. Laitman: Support them, no more – support them in all possibilities. 

Student: What is the most meaningful, supportable, help a person can receive, release himself so he enters.

M. Laitman: If you decide that, let's say today, we're supporting, we're supporting someone and tomorrow someone else the next day someone else. Meaning that during the day we only think of the one we decided about. 

Student: If we take it to the Ten, let's say we pick a friend today, so how should this support be expressed? In what way should we support him during the day, what should we do? 

M. Laitman: In thought. 

Student: Okay, in thought. What do we want for him?

M. Laitman: That I want him to succeed.

Student: What should the friend be thinking about, what should that friend that we're thinking of what should he think? 

M. Laitman: That he is willing to connect to the Creator, by the friends, in order to be, in order for there to be a connection between the Ten and the Creator. 

Student: So, we check, we check if the friend felt a change or no such check. Every friend does what he does and he's not supposed to feel a result or should he? 

M. Laitman: No.

Student: So, it's not like an experiment. I know that I thought about him, I made my efforts. 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (15:42) What can accelerate the process of revealing the identification of the intention to receive? Why is it so concealed from our presence? It's not right in front of our faces and recognizing it as bad is another stage that's more advanced. What can accelerate the process of identifying the intention that is in order to receive, which is actually Lo Lishma? 

M. Laitman: No, what's Lo Lishma?

Student: Is it Lo Lishma, identifying the intention in order to receive, is that Lo Lishma?

M. Laitman: No, the intention, Lishma, that you want your friends to be in order to bestow? 

Student: Yes, no, I want them to be bestowed, I want to perform an act that is clean. But I detect that it's in order to receive that I get some benefit from it, I can't disconnect from the benefit. That's what I'm saying, why is it so difficult to detect, to notice that all my actions are only for my own good and afterwards to recognize that it's bad?

M. Laitman: Because the will to receive itself is concealing. 

Student: That's clear but the question is what does do it because without identifying the intentions to receive, I will not be able to even understand that it's bad for me.

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: That's why I'm asking, what do we do in order to accelerate the process of identification? 

M. Laitman: Only to try and do such actions between you; Rabash writes about it in many articles. 

Student: Yes, but I guess it's not enough, otherwise, I wouldn't be asking. If I knew, if I detected it, it's clear. 

M. Laitman: We need to be connected between us to such an extent that in us we'll feel the force of the Creator that is turning us all around, filling us, connecting us to one desire – to bestow contentment to the Creator. And from that desire that we are revolving around the Creator to bestow contentment to Him, in that desire.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (19:35) When you hear such questions, the very question kills the desire to listen. What is such a question: How do I guarantee Lishma? It's a question of security, not faith in the Creator. How do you deal with such questions because sometimes it's hard to believe that people have been studying here for 20 years.

M. Laitman: You call me teacher and me, as a teacher, I must hear all the questions and relate to each and every question in a direct and true way. That can be anyone who studies and comes here even once a year and suddenly sits and hears, and asks, I must. That's why that's not a question on how I hear them, I hear it and I try and answer.

Student: But the inclination for Lishma is completely an element of yourself, and he's asking, how do I get Lishma, so that contradicts the whole inclination to Lishma. When you hear it, it means you don't believe that the Creator can do everything. There's a limit to the faith.

M. Laitman: You're right but I as a teacher, I must simply accept it.

Student: For what purpose?

M. Laitman: For what purpose? For his connection with the Creator, that he’ll keep going and he'll discover, gradually.

Student: There's a contradiction, here. Which is more important for you, justice or peace? What's more important for you, how do you and how do you choose?

M. Laitman: For now, peace. For now, peace.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (22:20) According to the excerpt, it seems like there's no meaning to time, to the quantity of actions that we take. And then he writes that there are those who qualify him to the extent of his control over his heart. 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: What does it mean to qualify him?

M. Laitman: Qualify, that they make him worthy of an action. 

Student: Who makes him worthy? 

M. Laitman: Man.

Student: But who are those who qualify a person? 

M. Laitman: Those who want to connect and take the upper actions upon the lower desires.

Student: Should it be clear to them that this is what they're doing? Should it be their goal for each one to be able to achieve it?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: And for a person himself, what does it mean that he controls his heart? 

M. Laitman: That he knows how to control his heart; to turn his heart around from in order to receive to in order to bestow. 

Student: And one depends on the other.

M. Laitman: Well?

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (24:00) To want to continue onward in order to adhere to the goal, you keep telling us anything but leave. That desire builds the general desire of adhesion with the goal. The responsibility of assistance, and the environment of the Ten, of the morning lessons, all those things build a desire. The desire is something that is built. It's not something that exists, necessarily. How in the Ten do we support that part of building a desire that is connected to adhesion in order to bestow until the Congress? 

M. Laitman: Day after day come to the morning lesson and in this way you start your day. Write down the main things that you want, you want them to work in you the whole day till the next day, that's it.

Student: And disturbances, how do we relate to them as something positive? 

M. Laitman: To begin with, each and every disturbance that awakens, it awakens because I have to pay attention to it. That it comes from a place that is uncorrected and I need to correct that place. In what, in the desire for connection

Student: The thing is that anything good that comes to you comes at a cost. How can you be open to that cost? 

M. Laitman: I don't understand?

Student: The labor. 

M. Laitman: Yes?

Student: There's no such thing as getting something without labor, it's just not on our way. How do you become open for this labor with an open heart, with joy? Because it's continuing onward with a happy heart, and here comes the labor, the persistence, the responsibility, the humility, everything. How can I be open to the labor? 

M. Laitman: If I awaken inside me the greatness of the payment, so all my work becomes smaller compared to it.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (27:07) I'd like to get back to the exercise we talked about. Everyone in the Ten prays for one friend in the Ten because most of the time when I hear about an attack, it feels to me like something general. What you said is a strategy for an attack. Someone asked a friend that everyone thinks about, prays for, what should he be thinking? This is an important point, I feel. And you didn't, you didn't say, you didn't fully answer this question. What is the thought in the friend that everyone prays for, what is his thought? 

Reader: He's asking, previously, you gave an exercise to concentrate on someone specific in the Ten that everyone will think about. So, the friend is asking about the friend that everyone is thinking about today. Maybe you can also say, what should he be thinking about? We're all thinking about him, what should he be thinking about? 

M. Laitman: What he should be thinking about – on everyone thinking of him. And he wants to be annulled towards their thoughts and to feel inside him how he implements that thought of theirs on him. 

Student: More specifically: How does he use their thoughts for the benefit of the others in the Ten? How to formulate his thoughts so they will benefit the others in the Ten?

M. Laitman: Yes, to think of that. 

Student: I’m asking how?

M. Laitman: I agree.

Student: Do you have an idea? 

M. Laitman: How to use it, he needs to understand that they're passing to him their desires – all the friends – and he must pass their desires to the Creator; that he's clothing in them. 

Student: But their thoughts are about him and to elevate it to the Creator, there's a chance it'll be egoistic and the whole prayer will break. 

M. Laitman: Reader, did you understand him? 

Reader: There's a chance that it will break and he will not succeed in raising it all to the Creator. It'll be egoistic so the friend is asking what to do? 

M. Laitman: Accept it in his vessel, wrap it with his desire and his anxiety. That it won't get spoiled when he passes it on. Then, when he's sure he can, that their desires are clothed in him and from the bottom of his heart, he's passing it to the Creator, then he can do it.

Student: The friend that everyone prays for. Should he be above and below at the same time?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: How to perform this, being above and below, simultaneously?

M. Laitman: Because in the world to receive, he is below; and in the world to bestow, he is above.