Question #1: Is Lishma considered the corrected version of Lo Lishma? It seems obvious to me that it is, but I’ve been fooled by the obvious before.
Answer: Lo Lishma, the Rabash writes, is very exalted. It is something much greater than we even imagine Lishma to be. Lo Lishma is the pinnacle of the work “from below”, that which we are capable of doing. Only then, Lishma comes as a gift from Above. As it is written, “I labored and found.” It is beyond the human imagination to depict what Lishma is, let alone arrive at Lishma. Our efforts in Lo Lishma, though, demonstrate to the Upper Force to what extend we wish to be in Lishma.
Question #2: In other words our efforts in Lo Lishma demonstrate our true desire for that which we cannot achieve on our own.
Question #3: I didn’t really understand the relation between “Lo Lishma” and the Ego?
Answer 2&3: The ego is only what is opposite connection, nothing else. The ego is a force that exists as certainly as gravity. You don’t perceive gravity unless you correctly place something in gravity’s way. If you hold an object up, then you feel how gravity operates on this matter. If I will try to go into connection with others in a group, then I will feel how there is a force like that, which only operates against human connection; and as long as I don’t aim at that, I do not encounter this opposing force. Lo Lishma is when I am connecting, because the Upper World is revealed in connection between the parts of reality, and I aim to do it in order to bestow, to become like the Creator, because I have been told by Kabbalists that what will give Him contentment is connection. And my aim is to give Him contentment. Thus, with all my forces I’m trying, but I am still using my nature which I have been given from Above, and therefore no matter what I do, I remain in my ego. But I keep trying, awaiting the force called Reforming Light, which has the ability to invert my ego (which is the intention for self-benefit) to the intention called Lishma.