Prayer - Ascent to the Upper World
Q: Is there anything in our world that can affect the Upper World, or raise a person to it?
A: Everything begins in the Upper World and then comes down to ours. Our mechanical movements, as well as everything that happens in nature, have no effect on the Upper World, because our world is merely a consequence of it, meaning it follows the commandments of the Guidance that comes from Above.
Anything that happens here in this world is a consequence of forces, commandments and influences that descend from Above.
The only things that rise from our world to the Upper One are the desires of man that come from the bottom of his heart. Only they evoke responses in the Upper World. That is how they influence it.
As a result, they also influence what comes down to us. The desires of a person that come from the bottom of the heart are called “prayer.”
All of man’s desires, without exception, are divided according to their aim into desires “for myself” and desires “for the Creator.” The Creator determines man’s desires and we cannot change them, because the Creator wants us to correct them. When speaking about the correction of desires, the idea is not to change the desire itself, or to suppress it, but to change the preliminary aim from “for me” into the desired aim, “for the Creator.”
The Superior Management exists for that sole purpose – to constantly fuel us with desires so we can slowly digest them and come to realize that they need to be corrected. All spiritual acts are actually corrections of the intent of our desires. In order to delight in the Creator, in His Light, we should change our aim from “for me” (in order to receive) to “for the Creator” (in order to bestow).