When Christ came most people did not recognize him because he did not fit into their preconceived notions. The soul is the same way. This parallel is not an accident. The beginning to understanding Christ as symbolism for the soul is connecting with what we take to be a deep dark abyss equivalent to all that outer space you see when you look up at the night sky. That is part of what is infinite and eternal and we are a part of it too. We can try some meditation and allow the desire for thoughts to teach us how badly we are identified with the personality. It runs on auto-pilot. Most people don't think this to be a problem until they try to get it to stop. It's a runaway train that with much momentum and it often sweeps us away from the stillness of God. How can we experience the truth behind the words "Be still, and know that I am God" if all these thoughts and beliefs and judgements are running rampant? The personality cramps our personal space and creates chaos because it is panicking as it runs away from the spaciousness of infinity.
Remember the man Jesus healed across the water who could not be shackled? His name was legion for there were many voices in his head. This miracle points to us. We are the ones with the voices that don't quit. The infinite peace of God which surpasses all understanding resides inside of us. When we reach it, through meditation for example, the voices scatter over the cliff as the personality runs for the hills. We are left healed and whole and in our right minds. See Mark 5:7.
God wants us to know that he loves us so very dearly and tenderly. We are to be a reflection of this by being gentle with the personality. It will judge itself and then it will judge itself for judging itself again. Please please please be very very VERY careful with this. The only rule is DO NOT JUDGE. At the beginning of awakening to the soul there is little to stop the personality from continuing to judge itself over and over again. Our awareness may not yet be developed enough to detect it. Pay attention to the temptation to bite of the forbidden fruit and to judge everything. Watch for specific instances when it happens and question everything about it. Why is it doing this and what is it trying to accomplish? Ask the universe for assistance. Ask to be shown what needs to be seen. "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you" Matthew 7:7. The answers may not come right away but they will often come in funny ways a few days or weeks later. Awakening actually becomes enjoyable because God is super funny, I kid you not. I digress. But it does takes practice to develop this habit of questioning the personality. It can eventually become a way of life and then things really start to get interesting.
We need to feel the intensity of the desire to hang on to thoughts, beliefs and judgements. This is the same intensity with which the adversary has us in a head lock. Do not struggle against it though because that will only make things worse. What needs to happen is that we need to stop trying to control things and simply accept what is there, whether it's painful or not. The soul is not a quick fix solution. In fact it takes a long time but please don't fall back into the old trap. The personality then says, 'I will return to my house from which I came'; and when it comes, it finds it unoccupied, swept, and put in order. Then it goes and takes along with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there; and the last state of that man becomes worse than the first." Matthew 12:45