quotes from RESTORE MY SOUL by Rabbi Nachman

            "When a man has to rise from one level to the
next, prior to his ascent he must first undergo a descent.  The paradox is that the very purpose of the descent is the ascent.  From this you can see how much strength is required in the service of G-d.  Even when you fall or descend in any way,  you must never allow yourself to be thrown off  balance to the extent that you come to look down upon yourself or to hold yourself in contempt.

        You should refuse to dwell on the matter even
momentarily.  Regardless of what happens to you, in the end you will find that all your descents will be turned into great ascents and achievements, because the purpose of the descent is the ascent.  This point needs a lot of emphasis because everybody who experiences a spiritual fall imagines that this idea was never  intended to refer to his particular case.  He things it applies only to people on the highest plane who are perpetually climbing from level to level.  You should know and have faith that in truth all these words were spoken with even the worst and most insignificant of men in mind, because G-d is good to all."

            "When a person wishes to enter into the service  of G-d -- and this applies to everybody, even one who is on the lowest of levels, even one who is  literally "in the earth", he must at all times advance and rise from level to level.  Now, every time a person is about to move from one level to the next, each in his own way, he has to encounter the full force of the kelipot, the husks, all over again.  These are all his desires and fantasies and wild thoughts, the distractions and obstacles which are ranged against a person at every moment and try to prevent him from entering the gates of sanctity.

             This often leads to great confusion in the minds  of honest people who have truly worked hard on themselves.  Suddenly they find all these old desires, confusions, and obstacles rushing up against them.  They start thinking that they must have fallen from their level because before this they had rest from all these desires and confusions.  They lay dormant.  Now that they have reappeared, these people come to think they  must have fallen down.