Introduction to the Book of Zohar (PDF) - Kabbalah Media Archive

P R E FAC E T O T H E B O O K O F Z O H A R
So how can I imagine it, how can I elevate myself, break through
this barrier? What should my first step be and toward what goal? I cannot
imagine what I want to be. In our world I may, for example, aspire
to become a professor; I create this image in myself, see it, and clearly
know what it is like. In Kabbalah, however, there is no way to imagine
all that.
So if, instead of matter and the form it assumes, I imagine only the
abstract form, I will immediately fall into delusion and my subsequent
advancement will increasingly deviate from the goal.
Hence “The Zohar” instructs the person seeking spirituality to be
extremely careful with forms that are detached from matter, and are unperceived
by our sensations.
I cannot say that I feel something spiritual until I acquire a minimal
screen. Only having done that will I be able to perceive spiritual
objects and properties within it. They will be considered the acquired
form of this matter because the form will be determined by the screen.
The screen displays for us various properties and their combinations out
of matter, which assumes a certain form.
Therefore, he says: “Thus, only from the form of this matter do we
acquire all of the sublime knowledge that one can indeed rely on.” In the
process of studying “The Book of Zohar” we will be repeatedly emphasizing
this problem.
15. The third restriction is abstract form. This means that, after
the form reveals itself to us in matter, the power of our imagination
allows us to detach it completely from matter.
Here Baal HaSulam does not speak about absolute abstractions
that we have never seen before (e.g. angels and supernatural forces). He
asserts that even when we watch something and then divert our attention
from the observed object or phenomenon, we imagine it in an abstract
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