CHAPTER VII.

THE FATAL DELUSION OF DELAY
Some sound advice can be given to seekers after occult wisdom in two words : act now. Don't postpone good intentions. The world is full of people who have a vague notion that at some indefinite time and in some dimly com- prehended fashion they shall get to the point of being unselfishly useful to the world. Everywhere we meet the people who are going to do something "sometime/' One is waiting until real estate takes a "boom" so that the enhanced value of his investments will pay his debts and then he will be free to devote himself to theosophical work. Another has ability as a public speaker and, with theosophical knowledge to
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impart, could render invaluable service. He realizes it but feels that he must stay in business until he "has made a lot of money," not realizing that he doesn't in the least need a lot of money but that competent and sincere work will win its way. Another has put his financial faith in mines and is only waiting till they develop and then, well just wait, something tremendous will happen ! This victim of delusion misses the point that a dollar in the hand is worth more than a million in the mine that have not been found. The dollar he really could give might put a theo- sophical book in a public library or buy a dinner for a hungry family or mend the shoes of a shivering child ; but the millions he dreams about will very probably never do anything for him ex- cept keep him impoverished in the search for them ; and if the highly im- probable should occur and they ever really appear they will so engross his
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attention in taking care of them that he won't have time to think of anything else. Another tells us he is studying Theosophy carefully and thoroughly and, when he has mastered it, he will begin to teach; quite overlooking the fact that if he were to live a thousand years in this particular life he could not have "mastered it;" and that if he really desires to teach others there are always those at hand to instruct in some way. The test of ability to teach is not the fact that the would-be teacher knows everything but that he knows more than those to be taught. "Every contact is an opportunity."
And thus it is with those who wait. The delusion may have one form or another but the result is the same — inactivity and loss of opportunity. The very fact that they feel that they should do something is the evidence that they have reached the point in evolution where they must do something or miss
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their opportunity; that is to say, fail in what the Hindu calls their dharma, the next step in their evolution that can be taken along the line of least resist- ance.
Act now. It is a thousand times better to do a little at once than to decide that a great deal shall be done in the indefinite future. Mexico is sometimes called by travelers the manana country. The peons who serve you readily agree that anything you desire to have done, shall be done, but — manana senor — tomorrow! Never to-day on any account, if it can be avoided. But to-morrow, oh, yes, si senor! anything you like, only not now. And so they sit in the sun, and doze and dream, in serene con- fidence that it will be easier to-morrow. It is an attitude of mind in perfect keeping with the accompanying pov- erty of results. It is the same species of delusion that afflicts those of higher
58 Hints to Students of Occultism
intellectual development who yet do not stop to analyze their own motives and to see the inconsistency of their declarations. Anybody who really will do something in the future will be found doing a little something now— mingling at least a little present per- formance with his future promises. He will realize that the way to do things is to begin, no matter how feeble the beginning.
Act now. An occult significance in- vests those two little words. Action is the very expression of life on the physi- cal plane. We are missing the purpose of life by inaction. We are simply mark- ing time, not moving forward in the evolutionary march. So important is action that it is better even to blunder, while trying to do our best, than not to attempt to do anything at all. It is better for an infant to try to walk, and fall, than never to make the ven- ture. The pain of the fall will pass
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and a permanent lesson will be learned. In India a mistaken class of devotees withdraw from the world of affairs and by cutting off almost entirely all relationship with the rest of the human race seek through isolation and inaction to avoid responsibility for wrong acts and seek salvation for the self. It is said by occult investigators that they succeed so well in the desire to hold themselves aloof from the race that a terrible isolation is their future fate. Against this foolish course a great spiritual truth was once proclaimed: "Inaction in a deed of mercy becomes an action in a deadly sin.'' And so none may escape his responsibilities to others by withdrawing tortoise-like, into his shell of self-interests.
The second word shares the im- portance of the first. "Now" signifies the most vital period of all time. The magic of success lies within that little word. The man who procrastinates
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necessarily misses opportunities. The very essence of success is the ability to instantly seize and utilize an oppor- tunity. Every event has its "psycho- logical moment." The most mo- mentous affairs of the world swing this way, or that way, with the instan- taneous decision of some master mind. On the other hand the results in many a battle and in many a national crisis have been changed and the tide of suc- cess turned in the direction of disaster by the hesitation and indecision of one who was the unfortunate victim of procrastination. To form the habit of quick decision and prompt action is to arm oneself with a mighty weapon for successful work; and with the cultiva- tion of such a habit of life gradually comes the ability to recognize the pro- pitious moment when it arrives.
"There is a tide in the affairs of men, Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune; Omitted, all the voyage of their life Is bound in shallows and in miseries. ' '
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That tide is often at the flood for a moment only and he who, through procrastination, fails to utilize that golden moment has paid dearly for his negligence. Procrastination is one of the fetters that binds, one of the bars that imprisons. If we would make progress worthy of students of occult- ism we must free ourselves from this encumbrance. We must acquire the art of prompt decision and immediate action. We must not be postponers. We must not be content with resolving that a thing ought to be done, and then quieting the divine insistence of the higher self with the comfortable thought that sometime, somehow, we will do it. We must acquire the beneficient habit of doing things for the common welfare and of doing them now.