Upper central series of a Lie algebra ($Z_0=0,Z_{i+1}/Z_i=Z(\mathfrak{g}/Z_i)$)

Each term is the preimage of the center of a Lie algebra after quotienting by the preceding term. Equivalently, $Z_{i+1}=\{x:[\mathfrak{g},x]\subseteq Z_i\}$. A Lie algebra is nilpotent exactly when this series reaches the whole algebra after finitely many steps. For the Heisenberg Lie algebra, the series is $0\subset \mathbb{C}c\subset \mathfrak{g}$.