Certain forces are set in place, first as safeguards (like the bumpers in kiddie-bowling) and then as boundaries to break free of. (like Gravity) Each person has within them these forces or attributes that begin by allowing them to survive and grow and flourish. Like the desire for food. Then as a person grows and becomes more aware of his or her surroundings, s/he must start to pay more attention to what they consume, and how they consume it such that it will be most beneficial to them. This is true of the sexual desire. It is also true of the desire to communicate and to know. If we don't have any interest in knowing, we would never learn to speak. If we couldn't speak, our survival would be severely curtailed. Once we do speak, we learn that there are settings where certain speech is beneficial and other speech isn't.
The desire to know also can lead to harm, if misused or unchecked. Sometimes I have a compulsive need to finish a story I've begun to read. The need is so great that for the day and a half it takes me to read the book, I can't get to work or interact in social settings. Same thing for people who want to see everything that is on TV. The point here is not that everything is bad, or even that everything must be in moderation. The point is simply that it is necesary for a person who grows in awareness throughout their life to similarly examine their desires and channel them in healthy and productive ways.
Doing this, Rebbe Nachman explains, (Likkutei Moharan I:33) curbing your desires to serve your will (instead of your will slaving after your desires) uncovers God's Kindness that runs in veins throughout all of creation. Once these veins of kindness, חסד, are uncovered, God pumps ever greater amounts of kindness through them, direct to you. By drawing down this supernal kindness, Rebbe Nachman continues, one brings peace between God and his People, which brings peace to the whole world.
These veins of kindness throughout the world, are the letters of the Torah that are at the heart of every created thing. They are the vessels through which God pours his light into creation. Each created thing has only a very small amount of light in it, naturally. But, when that creation is removed from its natural state and turned to divine service, the letters are made accessible and a tremendous influx of light can come down through those revealed letters.
Each of our natural desires can be bent to the service of God, and through the letters revealed within them God's kindness flows and brings peace to us and the whole of creation.
[The vein metaphor is not used by Rebbe Nachman, it was added by me as an intermediary step to first understand the idea, before connecting it to the letters of Torah.]
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