CHAPTER III.

PERSISTENT AND REGU- LAR EFFORT
Another matter which the student who is just entering upon the study of occultism should have well settled in his mind in the beginning is the neces- sity for hard work. Whoever starts out with the notion that indifferent and desultory study of the subject will carry him through is foredoomed to failure; and he who imagines that by galloping through the literature of oc- cultism, as he would read a collection of novels, he can become an occultist will be nearly as far from his goal when he finishes as when he began. He may give to his occult studies much time or little, as he will. That is not the point. The important thing is that
26 Hints to Students of Occultism
whether the period be several hours a day or but one hour, or even the half of it, it should be characterized by that mental energy that is the natural re- sult of an eager desire and a steady purpose. Half-hearted work is but lit- tle better than no work. Without hard work the student's progress will be dis- couragingly slow. That is true of all our undertakings. Why should it not be true of occultism? The university student who makes rapid progress in law, or medicine, or mathematics, or languages, is he who works hard. Genius is only the essence of hard la- bor. It may have been performed in a past life but that does not alter the fact. We have no faculties that we have not made and every mental effort now is determining our intellectual ac- complishments of the future, as well as accelerating present progress.
Not only should we work with wide- awake energy but we should work with
Persistent and Regular Effort 27
persistence and regularity if we would get on. Regularity has a magic of its own. A given amount of energy put forth regularly, steadily, produces enormously more than the same amount of energy put forth irregu- larly, spasmodically. Let the young student set aside each day a certain time for occult studying and thinking, and permit no break in the work, and he will make gratifying progress. The difficulty of quickly getting down to work grows less and less. The art of becoming absorbed in the subject matter becomes easier and easier. Soon he finds that his hour or half -hour, as the case may be, counts in results out of all proportion to the time re- corded by the clock. But let him make the mistake of giving occult studies two hours today, nothing tomorrow, fifteen minutes the next day, nothing more for a week, then a full day "to make up for lost time," with such
28 Hints to Students of Occultism
future chance periods as convenience may dictate — make it the sport of cir- cumstance and the dependent of caprice — and a sum total of many more hours will take him a much less distance on his spiritual journey. By the first method he gets into the cur- rent of regularity and it carries him along with a sort of cumulative momentum. He is really entering upon a new moral and intellectual life — acquiring a new viewpoint, a new standard of measures, setting up new habits of consciousness — and a certain inertia has to be overcome. By regu- larity he not only gets into the new stride quickly but does not wholly lose it during the intervening hours; while by the second method he not only loses it but loses most of his study time in getting back to it. He has the inertia to overcome again and again and spends most of his time making new starts instead of making progress.
Persistent and Regular Effort 29
Regularity in the study of occultism counts heavily for progress in still another way. Such study is usually taken up by the beginner after he has seen or heard something that has aroused his interest in the subject. It may be some occult experience, or a conversation with a friend, or on ac- count of psychic phenomena in a news- paper, or a lecture on Theosophy. Something has aroused a temporary interest. Now, if he sets out with a plan and purpose and decides in ad- vance that he will follow a fixed pro- gram of daily study there is a fair chance that he will acquire a perma- nent interest in the matter before his enthusiasm wanes. But if he has no prearranged program, and only decides to utilize for such reading and study the idle time that he may chance to have in the coming days, he is ex- tremely likely to permit one thing after another to push aside his occult studies
30 Hints to Students of Occultism
until his interest slowly fades out and his golden opportunity is gone. It is a golden opportunity when any human being is, by any occurrence whatever, brought into contact with occult teaching; and fortunate indeed are those who realize it and promptly act upon it. It may mean to them, at its very least, all the difference there is between many happy, useful lives and many very commonplace ones, al- though it may appear on the surface to be a trivial matter whether one fol- lows up such an opportunity at once or not. Trifles at the starting point may represent great differences fur- ther along. Two rain-drops may fall nearly together at the top of a moun- tain range and yet, because one strikes the eastern slope and the other the western, ultimately find their way into different oceans. Those who have a fondness for such analysis have often shown that great events have turned
Persistent and Regular Effort 31
on the pivots of trifles. The differ- ence between adopting a regular pro- gram for daily occult1 study and adopting another that is lawless and erratic is one of those apparent trifles that serves as a pivot on which a des- tiny may turn.
ENTHUSIASM.
Enthusiasm is a thing of priceless value. Somebody has defined it as the power of God made manifest in a human being. Whatever else it may be it is certainly a great motor power, a force that carries one forward and upward. The difference between a person filled with enthusiasm about occultism and another who is not is the difference between life and death. One is asleep to everything but his material surroundings. The other is awake, aroused, in touch with the life currents of the universe. The chief
32 Hints to Students of Occultism
work of the theosophical lecturer is to arouse such enthusiasm — to so present spiritual facts to the minds that can receive them that the recognition of universal truth kindles the divine fire within. With those who have reached a certain point in evolution this flame of enthusiasm will burn steadily, how- ever feebly, and they may fortunately walk in the light for the remainder of this incarnation. With many others it will slowly subside, leaving them, however, more susceptible to future stimuli. Happy indeed is that • truth seeker who resolves upon a pro- gram of daily study and, while the flame of his new enthusiasm still burns, gets settled into the fixed habit that will carry him safely to the point where his temporary interest has be- come permanent.