Etz Hayyim
During this illness Rabbi Yehoshua, his closest follower, who had accompanied Vital on nearly every journey, managed to bribe Vital's younger brother, Rabbi Moshe, with 500 gold coins, to lend him his master's writings, which were kept locked in a box. Rabbi Moshe accordingly brought Rabbi Yehoshua a large part of the manuscripts, and 100 copyists were immediately engaged: in just three days, they were able to reproduce more than 600 pages. Although according to some reports Vital, upon learning of this, claimed that the papers which has been copied were not his own writings, they were rapidly disseminated. The writings in question purported to contain the teachings of the Ari rather than Vital's independent work.
The first printed edition was in eight volumes, known as the Shemonah She'arim, and this version is still used by some Kabbalists in the Sephardi world. The best known recension was published later under the title Etz Hayyim ("Tree of Life"), in which the topics were arranged in a more systematic order, and the parts on ritual (the Peri Etz Hayyim) were kept separate from the parts on the underlying theology. In addition to a tribute to the Arizal, the work contains the assertion that it is one of God's greatest pleasures to witness the promotion of the teaching of the Kabbalah, since this alone can assure the coming of the Jewish Messiah. Rabbi Chaim Vital stated that he had received these teachings, like his other mystic theories, from his teacher the Arizal.
However, Vital still held the teachings of his former teacher, kabbalist Rabbi Moshe Cordovero, in high esteem. He maintained that Rabbi Moshe Cordovero often appeared to him in dreams. One of the most prominent of Vital's opponents was Menahem Lonzano, who publicly denounced him in his work Imrei Emet.
Read more about this topic: Hayyim Ben Joseph Vital