The Crystal and the Way of Light - Blog Post by Namdrol

[muni]

Capacity through karma, as high intelligence ( just derivation of knowing is me told) should not be translated by our habitual classifying ideas.

Don't know who is Namdrol, but thank you Namdrol.

[heart]

This is actually a play on the traditional introduction of a Tibetan text. The texts often say that for students of the highest acumen the title conveys all of the meaning. It has nothing to do with snobbery.

I agree, this is also my understanding.

/magnus

[Pema Rigdzin]

Yes, this is also what I've been taught and it is quite traditional. It just has to do with having practiced in previous lives so that merely seeing a title in this life the entire meaning and import of the text unfolds within one's mind, due to that latent capacity being triggered by connecting with the title. Also, Tibetans tended to follow formulas for coming up with titles for teachings; i.e. the way the title is phrased and certain terminology used in it was often related to different Dharma topics, sort of like code language that signals the topic to be discussed and encapsulates the meaning.

Anyway, from my vague memory, I think the whole schematic goes something like (1) students of highest capacity will, upon seeing the title, experience complete understanding of the text, (2) students of middling capacity will, upon seeing the title, know what general category the text belongs to and have a general understanding of what it will cover, and (3) students of lowest capacity will at least understand it is a Dharma text and have respect for it. Again, this is from my rusty memory and probably not exactly correct, but you get the gist. It's just about karma from past lives.

[Pema Rigdzin]

Also Chaz, you apparently read the "if you're really inteligent" part in Namdrol's blog post and got incensed there and missed the rest of what he said, which is that he claims NOT to be one of those "really intelligent students" himself. Look more closely:

"If you are really intelligent, you will understand the meaning of this title automatically and need nothing further. When I first read this book, back in 1987, back in the days of the Harmonic Convergence and so on, I had no clue what it meant, I was suspicious that it might be some new age book. And when I first read about "self-liberation" I was confused since I thought this was a book about Tibetan Buddhism."

Also, the English word intelligence is often used to translate several different Tibetan words, some of which do actually mean something more like "capacity for wisdom" in this context.

I don't know really Namdrol personally, only really through his posts on e-sangha and interactions there, so I don't have a dog in this "fight" (for lack of a better phrase); I just think you've kinda jumped to conclusions here.