3.14 The object is that which preserves the latent characteristic, the rising characteristic or the yet-to-be-named characteristic that establishes one entity as specific.

I was recently at the Sedona Vedic Astrology Conference and I was attending a class being taught by Andrew Foss. In this class, he talked about the concept of kala, or time, being the great destroyer. What provides us with a constant of time outside of our minds? Well, of course there are clocks on everything: on our phones, in our cars and in the lower left hand corner of our computer screens (Upper right for you Macintosh heathens). The concept of the passage of time is relative to the motion we perceive in relation to other objects as we move through space.

On the way into Sedona along highway 89a, I have regularly passed through a cool town called The Village of Oak Creek. It’s a shame that most people pass this place by and go right into Sedona. Personally, I think it’s more scenic with the 1500 foot cliffs of the Colorado Plateau in the background. It’s common to see tourists craning their necks to get a good view of the rocks as they drive down the freeway. As they drive, the visual impressions are getting recorded into their conscious mind along with any emotional impressions they get from seeing the red rocks for the first time. It’s interesting how the human mind works with novelty though. I be pretentious if I said that the rocks have the same effect on me as they did the first time I saw them. Now I mainly get mad rubberneckers blocking off traffic as I try to get to where I want to go.

My point here is that these rocks have been there for a long time, much longer than any of our miniscule concepts of time could perceive with any real appreciation. The rocks are also just that: rocks. We attribute their beauty to the emotional effect they have in our brain, forgetting that they will be ground into the red sand hikers take for granted as they hike up their peaks. The one only true constant in time itself is perception according to this Sutra.