Question: How can you check if you are in a state of Lo Lishma from which we come to Lishma?

Answer: Lo Lishma means that a person strives for the truth. He has heard and theoretically has an idea of what it is, but at the same time, he is still in the intention to receive for his own sake.

If we measure Lo Lishma on a scale from 0 to 100%, in a case of a friend who borrowed $1,000 from me, then 0% Lo Lishma is when a friend is obliged to repay the $1,000 to me.

1% Lo Lishma is when he returns $999 to me and I accept it as a repayment of the entire $1,000. And 100% Lo Lishma is when he gives me back $0, an empty envelope. I check it with my senses, I see that there is nothing there, and I accept it as a debt repaid in full. That is, it shows how much I can go above my desires to receive.

But of course, all this progress is possible only due to the influence of the surrounding light. When we move from Lo Lishma to Lishma, the direct light begins to act.

Baal HaSulam gives such a definition of Lo Lishma in the article “Introduction to The Study of the Ten Sefirot,” Item 12: Indeed, practicing Torah and Mitzvot Lo Lishma means that one believes in the Creator, in the Torah, and in reward and punishment, and engages in the Torah because the Creator commanded the engagement, but associates his own pleasure with bringing contentment to his Maker.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/15/13, Shamati #64 “From Lo Lishma to Lishma“

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Question: Can we say that inanimate, vegetative, and animate nature also prays on their own level?

Answer: Any creature, even the inanimate, not to mention the vegetative, animate, and human, prays. At the heart of all of them is desire, but only a person who is learning how to do this can correctly direct this desire. Then his desire becomes directed correctly and works for his benefit and for the benefit of everyone.

Every creation has Hissaron (lacks, needs), which the Creator created. Thus, the desire of inanimate matter is to preserve its form, and this, in a way, is its request.

A person, however, has the opportunity not only to preserve, but also to change himself, and to ask about it consciously.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 9/25/22

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Question: What is the mechanism for activating the work of the upper forces in the system when many people pray? Let’s say that a large number of people are beginning to raise a request to the Creator, what mechanisms are activated in this case?

Answer: We proceed from the fact that we are one single spiritual object called the soul or Adam.

If we really want to engage this single spiritual object in which we are all included, to connect ourselves in it, and to raise the common desire of the object Adam to the Creator so the Creator corrects it, fills it, and brings it closer to Himself, then in the end this happens. And from this we feel positive consequences.

A person with his prayer triggers huge processes in the common organism called creation or humanity since he acts through the upper force, the Creator. Therefore a small human can launch huge forces of nature.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 9/25/22

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Question: What is the difference between thought and action? We always judge people by their actions, but thoughts practically produce the same actions. Let’s say a person wants to kill someone, we do not judge him by his thoughts.

Answer: In our world, we judge a person by actions, and in the spiritual world by thoughts. That is the difference. Therefore, we must correct our thoughts, as they say, intention.

Comment: Surely people do terrible things in their thoughts! They would have killed each other already.

My Response: This is why we are below the level of the spiritual world; we do not have its forces; otherwise, we would have taken this force and destroyed the entire world. But you are given the opportunity to have it only to the extent that you can make correct use of it and not in any other case.

The spiritual program is created in such a way that there is always an intention first and only then an action. Therefore, as soon as you may have some bad action and a bad intention before it, you immediately fall from this degree and do not have the strength to move on.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Thoughts and Actions” 9/8/13

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Question: Does a person born in our world already have an intention? Is he born not just with the desire to receive?

Answer: Yes, but they are small, micro intentions.

Question: We see that a small child has a desire to enjoy. Yet you cannot even say that he enjoys for his own sake. But when he grows up, he shows such, one might say, cunningness that he does it consciously for himself, he consciously uses others. Do we have a desire, a mind, and another function?

Answer: We have mind, desire, and intention. The most important thing is the intention. It determines where a person aspires in his actions.

With the help of the mind, we can change the intention. Desire itself is purely mechanical. But how we can elevate the intention above the desires and change the nature of the desire itself—for our own sake or for the sake of others—is already a human ability.

The mind is a very important function. Thanks to it, we can change our intentions.
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From KabTV’s “The Study of the Ten Sefirot (TES)” 10/2/22

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Question: If some deficiency arises in me and I understand that the Creator caused it, should I still add some external words?

Answer: Yes. Speak from yourself and as much as possible. And the Creator will understand and translate everything as needed.

Question: But this is one layer. Is there an even higher level, to ask for some things that are against my desires?

Answer: Against your desires and most importantly for others. If you are asking for others, for the whole world, for everyone, and you want them all to become wiser, better, closer to each other, softer, kinder, and you want to be inside of them, then these are the simplest and most effective prayers.

The Creator is a general force within which we exist. He can hear the prayer of any desire. This is what works here. I don’t have to talk or speak in any language, whistle, or sing. We launch our desires.

Question: Is it a kind of physics? Is there a single huge force and each of our desires also a small force? And is it felt?

Answer: Of course, physics. And why should it act somehow in a special way? We can direct the forces of nature ourselves, nurture them, and concentrate them. We can manage all of nature.

Comment: When you read prayer books, it seems like some kind of lyrics, and you are talking about forces.

My Response: The prayer book says what we should desire. And to really come to this, we need explanations and education. It is necessary to study.

I suggest reaching out to us to learn how we can change our lives with the help of prayer. Good luck!
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 9/25/22

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Question: Let’s say a person has some material problems and he asks the Creator to sort them out somehow. Is this normal?

Answer: Do you see that it helps?

Comment: It probably helps someone, but not someone else.

My Response: In principle, no.

Question: In Kabbalistic literature it is written more strongly that you harm yourself with this. In what way exactly?

Answer: By asking for yourself, you are asking to fill up or at least calm your egoism.

Comment: Then this information should be known to everyone because people usually ask for themselves.

My Response: Let them come and study Kabbalah. In many sources it is clearly written that if a person asks for himself, then he harms his soul.

Therefore people should come and learn how to properly address the upper force and thereby direct themselves to the right goal, to good.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 9/25/22

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There is no happier state in man’s world than when he finds himself despaired with his own strength (Baal HaSulam, Letter 57).

Question: How long do you think it takes a person to despair that he cannot correct himself and so he has to ask for help from above?

Answer: All his life except for the last moment when he is so desperate that he cries out to the Creator and the Creator hears him and corrects him.

Question: Does my prayer for others have any healing effect on me? Let’s say I ask for others does it work for me too?

Answer: Of course, that is what the prayer says: I ask for absolutely everyone and for myself last.

Question: Today scientists have come to the conclusion that if a person does some kind, altruistic deeds, it has a good effect on his mental state. Is this also praised in Kabbalah?

Answer: Of course. It works on all levels. The less a person thinks about himself and more about others, the better it is for him.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 9/25/22

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There are three conditions in prayer:

1. Believing that He can save him. Although he has the worst conditions of all his contemporaries, still, “Will the Lord’s hand be too short to save him?” If it is not so, then “the Landlord cannot save His vessels” (Baal HaSulam, Shamati, “Three Conditions in Prayer”).

Question: What does it mean to “believe”?

Answer: A person consists of all kinds of qualities and desires. Therefore, our studies attune us to select from all our desires, qualities, and intentions the ones that will direct all of humanity to good.

To believe means to be sure that if I do this, then eventually I invite upon myself the correct influence of the upper force and gradually correct myself. Thus, the first condition is that I must be sure that the Creator can help me.

2: He no longer has any choice for he has already done all that he could but saw no cure to his plight.

It means that he did not do everything. There is no other solution but to ask. Constantly address your request to the Creator. This is a single internal force of nature, which is able to correct us all. Therefore, there is practically nothing except for a prayer or request for correction.

3: If He does not help him, he will be better off dead than alive.

We need to come to the next state in which I want to correct myself and be similar to the Creator so much that if I do not achieve this, then it is not worth living for the sake of something else.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 9/25/22

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Comment: It is very difficult to imagine that a person walks around and thinks from morning to night: “How can I love all my neighbors?! If I cannot love them, it is better not to live. I do not want to live like that!”

My Response: If we start to think about it and understand that the meaning of our life is to correct ourselves from egoism to altruism, then, in general, this is what we do.

Comment: Imagine if eight billion people would sit and think: “How can we love each other”? This would be utopia.

My Response: If they imagined themselves like that for a second, it would be a prayer of eight billion! It would be fulfilled right away.

Question: Do you believe that someday this will happen?

Answer: Yes. Gradually, all kinds of negative emotions, rejections, and disappointments are accumulating in humanity. In the end, everyone will come to this.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 9/25/22

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