Throughout our lives (past and present), we accumulate a lot of burdens, dust and grime - of negativity, of guilt, of rudeness, of anger, of hatred, of pride, of selfishness, and many other negative attributes that weigh our soul down. Over the years, the burdens, dust and grime harden around our soul to form walls that do not allow our physical self gain access to the spiritual wisdom that lies within our own soul. Because of this weighing down, our soul cannot function optimally. The source of life for the soul is spiritual light, which we do not allow to get through to the soul, and the soul dies a slow death. We should understand that the death of the soul is in fact our own death, because we are spirit beings having a physical experience and not just plain physical beings.When life thrashes us around, remember that life is our friend, and is treating us that way in order to break-down the walls. Do not resist and fight against your sufferings, but go through them with grace. Physical life is transitory, and the good and bad all shall pass, but what remains are the lessons we learn by going through life with a smile in our hearts, and a prayer on our lips. Your tests and trainings in life are like stones that polish off all the unwanted debris. It is then that we have all the answers because we now truly listen to the voice that we until then kept silencing - the voice of our own subconscious mind. When we are thus tempered and our soul polished, our true life's mission is revealed to us by the teacher.