Indulgences and Purgatory

First of all: what is Purgatory in the first place? Purgatory is when someone iwth the right disposition, i.e. a disposition to God, dies without being in full union with God. Unlike Heaven itself, Purgatory is temporal. That means it has a specific time that you are in Purgatory. Whether that is in days or weeks or months or years is not known by our Earthly souls. However, we do know that it is the stepping stone from Earth, and death, to eternal life in Heaven. This is just what brings us closer to God.
So that brings us to indulgences. One of the huge topics of the Protestant Reformation was that of indulgences. There is an equally huge misunderstanding on what indulgences are. Indulgences aren't forgiveness you can just buy. They aren't permissions you can get to sin in the future. They aren't even anything you really should pay money for. Rather, they are more like suggestions. It's like working out. If you work out with the right disposition and you do it well enough, you will probably lose weight. With indulgences, you don't lose any weight, but you shave off time in Purgatory. This means that your time becoming closer to God is spent on Earth and not after death, meaning after you die you pretty much get some time off your God-therapy.
So how do you get an indulgence? Each bishop has the authority to give out one partial indulgence per year. If you do this indulgence the right way, with the right disposition, you should get some time off of Purgatory. If you don't end up getting some time off Purgatory, it doesn't mean the Church, which is founded and guided by Christ, has no authority. Rather, it means you, the sinful, finite human being, didn't do it right. The Pope has the ability to give one permanent indulgence per year. This means if you do it correctly you get a free pass to heaven. However, this indulgence has to rectify something that occurred in the first place. In order to truly get rid of time on Purgatory, you must remain in a state close to God for the rest of your life. Just as you distance yourself from God in the first place, you can do so again, which means you have to avoid doing that if you truly want to go directly to Heaven.