Ten Minutes of Meaning (Part 127): Ulterior Motives - Mesillas Yesharim

good morning poker 12 and welcome back to 10 minutes of meaning our weekly gathering to review the music timeless and powerful messages for today and for all times and inspiration to follow the formula of rapin towards bettering ourselves towards being the best version of ourselves it begins with zahirus with caution a life of mindfulness and consciousness it moves to zeresis a life of alacrity and a life of zeal it then continued with nikhias how to purge from ourselves those negative qualities and negative behaviors it then moved to a life of precious head of a live a life of discipline a life of dignity and that brings us up to tahara how to be aspiring for a life of purity today's day of learning at brs is sponsored by the cross moscowitz and the chief family for a foolish lima for alex crossov should have a speedy painless and a full recovery ten minutes of meaning our series is sponsored by khanilani grundstein in memory of her beloved father mr tambor aaron benitrak a tremendous thank you to our sponsors for today we are in pariktasia in chapter 16 in the ram khao and he has been describing for us what it means to live for holiness not for happiness what is the virtue of purity what it means to purge and to cleanse our heart not to live contaminated and not to live a life in which we are being brought down the animal instinct and impulse in us allowed to reign supreme and sovereign but instead to be in control of ourselves don't think that we can only control our deeds our actions our life's behavior but our thought and our mind is out of our control that our emotions are in our feelings they just come to us and there's nothing we can do about it don't think that for a moment it's a terrible mistake one needs to know we're able to direct our intent our mindfulness our concentration our focus that those thoughts can knock on the door of our mind but we and we alone choose who to allow in who to take up space who to be able to dwell there on what to on what thoughts to be able to to lose ourselves we need to know that distancing ourselves from that which will contaminate and that will be negative and that which will bring us back is also possible the purity of thought to influence deeds that are oriented towards hashem ruling foreign there are different categories of having ulterior motives there are different categories of doing things for the wrong reason sometimes we start and we do something for the wrong reason because of peer pressure or to keep up or for our reputation we do it for the wrong reason but once we start we discover that in fact it's meaningful and it's beautiful and it's elevating its enriching and then we want to continue harami kulamu but what is the lowest level of doing something for the wrong reason the lowest form of doing something even doing something right but for the wrong reason is doing it for honor or is doing it for money he's doing it in a way that you're not really doing it you're simply going through the motions you're living it superficially you're trying to impress and frankly you're trying to fool others had very negative very disparaging things to say about a person who is in fact so corrupt so distorted that they're trying to trick and fool others to believe that they're righteous so they live go through the motions externally but not only are they doing it for the wrong reasons the lowest level of the wrong reason is that they're not even present they don't even believe they're simply faking they're a fraud in order to be able to get honor in order to be able to earn more money in order to get recognition but there's another level of the wrong reason and that is you say you know what when i'm dominating i'm really dominating i'm learning i'm really learning i'm volunteering i'm doing kindness i'm really doing it but i'm doing it because i want the reward in this world i want the world in the next reward in the next world i'm not doing it because god is the king and when he says jump i say how high i'm not doing it because it's an order of the melech of the king i'm not doing it just because god said it's the right thing i have an ulterior motive and my ulterior motive is a more rewarding and rich life in this world and in the next that also is an ulterior motive that also is an impure reason but it's a much better one than money or honor leola that's what our rabbis say better to do the right thing for the wrong reason because you may come to learn to do it for the right reason you may come to do it for the intrinsic inherent beautiful reason shalom but as long as we're still doing it for the wrong reason we have not yet reached the highest level of doing it and so there are different levels of wrong reason there's the wrong reason which is self-motivated narcissistic egotistical honor money recognition friends followers but you're a fraud in the end of the day you're not even present you're not even really doing it in the end of the day you're a faker you're a fraud and then there's doing the right thing for the wrong reason you're not a fraud you're doing you're invested in it and you're actually doing it you're doing it because you want the reward of the almighty you want the reward of this world and that's still not yet the real reason however what requires even more serious evaluation requires us to think by ourselves sometimes you're not in the mood and you do it anyway and you say what's motivating what's driving me no one knows about it won't bring honor won't bring money won't be recognition but you know what i believe in god i believe in a higher power i believe that this world is not a coincidence and i believe that i am here for a reason in it and if i have the gift of waking up this morning and the gift of seeing and hearing and walking and the gift of a roof over my head and food to eat then i owe the one who has gifted me then i am here for a reason a mission a charge and therefore i'm doing this mitzvah even though i don't really feel invested in it even though i don't necessarily understand it but it's what god asked me then i am ready to do it for that reason because the omnipotent infinite god who is so gracious and good to me then this is what i do not for him because everything he asks us to do ultimately is also for us whether we understand it or not so that's our that's our ambition our aspiration is that our attitude towards doing mitzvos is not because of how it advances our self on the lowest level advancing ourselves with money or honor on a little bit of a higher level advancing ourselves that we believe it will bring with us a reward or rewarding life in this world or the next but doing it because it's this is what our father in heaven has asked of us this to ask of us he does not refrain from adding some other motive so sometimes we're doing it for the absolute right reason we're doing it because when god says jump we say how high we're doing it because he's the king he's omnipotent he's good he's gracious and this is what we can do and must do and should do in return not for him but for us so even then we still don't mind if people notice we just don't mind if it's a little recognition we still don't mind if it's a little rewarding so that's not yet at the highest level now again these are all wonderful levels better to be doing and they're not doing it because jack writes fake it till you make it better to do it even if you don't feel it shalolis fake it till you make it there's different levels and different motivations of faking it and there's different levels of faking it you could fake it means you're doing the right thing and you want to do it the right reason you're not there yet you're driven by other motives but you're invested and you're fully present in it and then there's fake it where you're not invested you don't believe it you're going through the motions and you're acting you're actually faking it you're trying to mislead others about who you are and the life that you're leading is sometimes a person has no intention of attracting praise or honor but nevertheless once it comes you get a certain geshmaq there's a certain joy when you get that feedback you get that email you heard there was a conversation that was praising you there is a certain joy that comes kane myself tells us the story of the daughter of the great rabbi who had a graceful way of walking the cave on cheshire um and she once overheard kamen knows everybody she overheard people saying how nice is the walking are the strides look at the graceful uh gate of this young lady mia dikhtika yoser so what did she do she was even more mindful she was even more careful on how she walked because it attracted the attention the praise the compliments so what caused her to be mindful more present to pay more attention and to do it better the fact that she overheard people noticing it and praising it now is there anything really wrong with that that's the level we get to that that's the worst thing that we do however when you get to that level that there's any ulterior motive that there's any other variable that there's any other drive or reason for doing it you've taken away the purity of the act so again this is a very high level and we're not suggesting that if you're doing the right things even if for not entirely the right reasons you should stop doing them or that you're a fraud or that there's any criticism against you god forbid god forbid all that is painting for us and there's a reason this is chapter 16 this is the opening chapter we have already hopefully made strides pun intended in the other qualities of mindfulness and of zeal and of purging the negative impulses and of discipline and on top and beyond all that the next step in the next level this isn't how we begin is to try to purify you know if you take metal and you put it in the fire you're trying to burn out the impurities of the metal that's what we're trying to do in this chapter is painting a picture for us a picture of a possibility and there are people there are people even in this world and even at this time who are capable of living at this level who live lives where they are burning out they are eliminating the impurities within their motive they're constantly evaluating and re-evaluating why am i doing this what's driving me to do this are my motives pure am i doing it for the right reasons now again it starts with doing it get up off the couch and do it better to do it than not do it however we should understand the different levels of those drives what are those impurities the worst impurity that motivates or the worst impurity that drives money and honor above that is the reward we're going to get for doing it above that is having any ulterior motive mixed in like hearing someone praise it for what we're doing and that drives us to do it a little bit better the highest level the tahara that we're striving for that that we're understanding is a possibility at least is to do something where no impurities nothing is mixed in it is entirely and purely pure up with this please god next time 8 45 we continue with living with i'm going to join us for a bolt and jolt and burst of a muna of faith in your life 8 45 right back here on the youtube channel subscribe so you can be notified in real time every time we go live and participate in our learning until next time stay happy stay healthy