..續本文上一頁, the alternative identification of vaidurya, is clearly mu-men in Tibetan. Other kinds of beryl, such as the yellow or colourless white, are specified in Tibetan, for instance in “the garland of white beryls.” The translation “white lapis-lazuli” would obviously be wrong. Sanskrit dictionaries are not conclusive, sometimes giving “lapis” or “cats-eye” as the meaning. Vaidurya means “that from far away” and was probably, like so many other Sanskrit words, used for different things. Therefore, in some Sanskrit texts it could possibly mean lapis lazuli, though this appears to be unlikely in the context of the Medicine Buddha, “The King of Vaidurya-Light,” as it is beryl which is translucent and can emit coloured light.

　　Three obscurations

　　The three obscurations are

　　- obscurations of the kleshas,

　　- obscuration of knowledge, and

　　- obscurations arising during meditation.

　　Those of the kleshas are due to the presence of ignorance, attachment, and aversion. That of knowledge is due to delusion, i.e., believing things that do not exist are existent and believing that things that exist are non-existent. Those of meditation occur when one clings to meditative experiences that do arise. While the kleshas themselves form the encrustation or obscuration, the latter two subtle obscurations point to what is obscured. The coarsest obscurations are those brought on by the kleshas. The more subtle obscurations are those caused by illusion, and the subtlest obscurations are those that arise from clinging to experiences that arise during the practice of meditation. Rangjung Dorje tells us that just as three procedures need to be carried out in order to cleanse a beryl gem from the dirt that encrusts it after having been unearthed, likewise, the Buddha nature needs three cleansing processes so that it sparkles visibly and shines purely and radiantly.

　　The three obscurations are cleansed by engaging in the practices of the paths and while achieving the seven impure and reaching the last three pure Bodhisattva levels of realization, called bhumis. The evident and coarse kleshas are overcome while on the first two paths of accumulation and application; they are finally eliminated when the first seven Bodhisattva bhumis have been attained. Latencies of mind poisons still persist in the mind of a practitioner on the seventh bhumi of realization. The subtlest latencies are eliminated on the final stages of practice, when the last three bhumis have been fully realized.

　　Bhumi is the Sanskrit term for “stages or levels of enlightenment,” from the first level of a Bodhisattva to that of Buddhahood. The first seven of the eight Bodhisattva levels are termed “impure” and the latter three are called “pure.” The Sanskrit word bhumi and the Tibetan sa literally and commonly mean “earth, soil,” or “ground.” The Sanskrit can also have the meanings of “district, place, situation, site, the floor of a house” and thus also a degree or stage of spiritual practices.

　　How conceptualisations are gradually eliminated

　　When incorrect conceptualisation

　　Encounters correct conceptualisation,

　　 Just as both (kindling-) sticks are burned by the fire,

　　 there is freedom from (both) conceptualisations.

　　There is the freedom from the concepts of elimination,

　　Remedies, suchness, and the idea of a result.

　　There are two types of conceptualisations: incorrect thinking as such as well as the thought of suchness.

　　Freedom from incorrect conceptualisations

　　Incorrect conceptualisations arise while in a state of delusion. How is incorrect thinking overcome

　　The remedy against incorrect conceptualisations is resorting to correct conceptualisations, again and again. Rangjung Dorje presented the example of …

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