The learning for one who yearns for it, the most successful way is to look for a sage, a true kabbalist, and obey him with whatever he tells him until he is rewarded with understanding the wisdom with his own mind, meaning the first discernment. Afterward, he will be rewarded with its conveyance orally, and this is the second discernment, and then to understanding in writing, since then he will inherit all the wisdom and its instruments easily from his teacher, and he will have all the rest of his time to add expansion and development.

Indeed, there is a second way in reality, where because of all the yearning and great desire in a person, the fear of heaven will open up to him and he will attain by himself all the sources that are the first discernment. But afterward, one must toil and exert very much in order to find a wise teacher before whom he can bow and obey, and receive the wisdom as conveyance from mouth to mouth, which is in the second discernment, and afterward in the third discernment.

But because he was not supported by a kabbalist sage from the beginning, the attainments come to him with great effort and take a long time, and he is left with little time to expand in it.

Or, sometimes it happens that the mind comes completely after the time, as it is written, “And they will die without wisdom.” These are ninety-nine percent out of a hundred, and we call them “entered but did not exit.”

Yet, not everyone succeeds in the first way, since most of them, once they are rewarded with attainment, become arrogant and cannot bow or obey their teacher sufficiently, so the sage must hide from them the tenets of the wisdom.

All this applies to the conveyance of the wisdom. There are rigorous and strict conditions that stem from necessary causes, and therefore few succeed in being favored by their teacher until he finds them worthy of this thing.