A Secret Key to The Book Of Zohar

Before starting to read The Book of Zohar, we must attune ourselves to its correct comprehension. It is a closed, secret, and ciphered book that requires a specific code in order to be understood.

How can we break this code and open up this book, as we would a safe? The key to The Book of Zohar is the correct perception of reality, as it is written, "Man is a small world." This is the secret to it.

Everything exists inside me, including the world I perceive and everything I feel. Every person that I see next to me is perceived inside my brain. It only seems like everything I see, hear, smell, and touch is outside of me, because my senses depict it this way for me, making me feel like I am dealing with something outside of me.

The science of Kabbalah says that there is only desire and nothing else. This desire consists of five parts: vision, hearing, scent, taste, and touch. I perceive impressions inside my desire in a way that makes it seem as if there is an external world existing outside of me. It is a feeling that an object is not inside of me, but outside.

It is presented this way inside my desire because my desire is divided in two parts: me and the external world. Stated in Kabbalistic terms, the desire consists of five parts called: 1.root, 2.spirit, 3.body, 4.clothing, and 5.palace (external space).

Root, spirit, and body are my feeling of the "myself," whereas clothing and palace are phenomena that seem external to me. However, they only seem as happening outside of me because I am structured to perceive a part of my internal feelings as being separated from me, as if they are foreign or external.

This desire is so detached from me that I don't even feel that whatever happens there is related to me. Someone else is in pain, but I don't feel anything. Someone else dies, but I don't feel anything. Moreover, it is so detached and far away from me that I enjoy when it suffers. That is how blinded we are!

Additionally, there are abnormal cases in our world where people enjoy bringing pain to themselves. In fact, however, the rest of us are the greatest masochists of all! But because everyone else feels the same way, hurting "others" (who are really parts of us) is considered a norm.

-from the daily Kabbalah lesson on The Book of Zohar