The soul learns to make conscious decisions on everything in its life and meticulously implement them. The darkside isn't allowed to get away with anything. This is only achieved after continuous monitoring and stocktaking which brings the existence and activities of the darkside under the microscope. This is learning the enemy to defeat it. The next step is to intercept all non-decided attempts to behave, and to override it.The darkside, however, never takes no for an answer. It operates on a 'stop me if you can' principle. This is where research and experimentation comes in, as one devises methods to stop it. Research gives techniques, tips and things-to-try, whether it is from religion, spiritual groups, or from completely outside the field. In this way, one is configuring a soul lifestyle and developing a soul modus operandi, doing what it takes to fight and defeat the usurping darkside. Error and success in creating desirable change can be noticed by the soul/experimenter, and adjustments are made accordingly.
The evil majority in society attacks those bodies whose souls break free, or threaten to do so. If you do not posses the 'mark of the beast', you are black-listed, marginalized, discriminated against, set up and ruined, if not killed by snake-power. Attack is meant to suppress the soul and help the darkside. Regress for the soul means progress for the darkside. For a soul to weather that storm and survive, is a defeat for the darksiders. This feat is not achieved by guess. It is the result of walking straight, hand in hand with God, while learning the darkside to defeat it. Research and intuition bonds to give you that unorthodox science which is the 'overwhelming force' that dethrones the darkness within. As conviction of the truth grows, the resolve grows. As methods are experimented with, the sense of purpose is awakened. With every little victory, the willpower that was previously suppressed, is restored. Eventually, one gazes on the madding crowd of darksiders with pity. Know that they will attack and it is only preparation, tools and techniques which will blunt their attack or render them powerless. This becomes the new life.
The second biggest obstacle to the awakening of suppressed or sleeping souls is the old paradigms of religion and orthodox spirituality. Souls acquiesce in their bondage to the modus operandi enacted by popular paradigms, and do not strike out for freedom beyond that rut. The road to its own lifestyle and destiny, as owner/ruler of its body, is either unknown or very obscure. The darkside, too, grabs on to the security and comfort of familiar doctrines, and the companionship of other believers. That sense of belonging, of being part of something, is just another leash by which the darkside within is tethered by the society's offerings.
These paradigms stifle and put souls to sleep because their rallying cries are blind faith, surrender and belief. These make fools of the Scientific Method and Art of Logic which are operative in practically everything else in our lives. Everyday we operate in a world of cause and effect, and the processes which link the two. This is a world of how things work, and reasons for things not working. It is a world of information and knowledge. It is the same brain that is accustomed to processing observations, do experimentation and generate conclusions that is being told by these old paradigms that these skills are useless when it comes to salvation. Faith and belief are knowledge-based in daily life but must be blind in religious things.
That same brain which reviews the evidence before concluding is being told that no evidence is necessary in religion, and that one just has to accept that the soul gets salvation on death, or afterwards. In addition, we are told that it is a done deal (there is nothing extra for us to do) or it is ordained by God pending our prayers, rituals, devotion, worship, pilgrimages etc. Everything is God's grace, they say, including those whose names are written in the Book of Life. They were chosen to be saved. What role is there, therefore, for the 'person'? None except prayer, worship, attending services, paying tithes, taking part in traditional celebrations, giving charity and other things: all that is acceptable to society, priestcraft and peers.
If one looks at the specialist branches of Yoga as evolved from the so-called Masters, they do not specifically name or target the darkness within. Yet, some techniques do fight the darkness, in practice. What is called the lower nature, is in fact the darkside: a separate and different substance from Atma or soul. Some branches, such as Kundalini Yoga and Meditation, as practised, actually build the darkside within. The 'visions', powers and astral journeys belong to the darkside, not the soul. So, even those orthodox spiritual disciplines, which are away from mainstream religion, and despite the fact that they have some soulbuilding tips, are fraught with failure i.e. the salvation they promise do not manifest. Salvation cannot be obtained unless it is from the darkside, within and outside. Unlike other salvation claims, soulbuilding as a path produces changes one can experience, as soul becomes empowered.
So, the problem with the old paradigms of religion is that they do not lay out a methodology for executing a path in which changes (causes) are instituted to induce other changes (effects) which are experiencible while alive. The expected changes are to take place at such a time (death or afterwards) when we cannot project that we will be conscious of them. This mechanism is dubious especially since we HOPE that God or the fructification mechanism kicks in for us. We are therefore walking on a path for which we have no corroboration. Nobody receiving such salvation has returned to say that it works out like that. Without details on how the path is executed, what the steps are and what changes to expect, there is no progress or progression that we can measure.
What is the use of traveling on a pathway, if we do not experience changes as we walk? These changes must felt by the soul: the beneficiary of the salvation journey. That our lifestyles have changed, that we no longer entertain 'bad' habits, that we feel uplifted by God-discourses, that we feel that we belong, that we have more hope now, that we now have purpose in our lives....all these superficial changes to our previous circumstances do not mean that our souls are more saved than before. TO BE CONTINUED ........