Fri, 14 Jul 2006
Rumors and Gemstones
I heard conflicting information at the seminar about the Seventeenth Karmapa's visit to America. According to Gloria, the Phoenix KTC has been asked to buy a property so that they can host H. H. karmapa when he visits this year. She says one of the Florida KTCs has also been asked to buy a property for the same reason. And when she asked when H. H. Karmapa was going to visit, she was told soon, possibly even next year. However, Byron, who went to Inida for the Karmapa's twenty first borthday asked H. H. Karmapa when he would visit America during a group interview and was given the noncommital answer that it would probably happen in the next three or four years. The problem has never been in the willingness of the Karmapa to travel. It's been the willingness of the Indian government to let him travel abroad.
During the Medicine Buddha empowerment Yeshe Gyamtso translated vaidurya as blue beryl. That was a little surprising, because I'd always seen it translated as lapis lazuli. So I asked him the next day and he said that he used to translate vaidurya as lapis lazuli, because everyone else did, but it definitely isn't. He said that he believes it's blue beryl, or aquamarine. This page on Tibetan Medicine seems to back up his opinion.
Sangye Gyatso was appointed Regent by the Great Fifth Dalai Lama (1617-1682). During his 26 years in this position, the Potala Palace was rebuilt and expanded to its present size and the golden stupa of the Great Fifth Dalai Lama was built. Under his guidance, seventy nine medical thangkas were produced, the rGyud-bzhi was edited and published, and the Chagpori Medical College was established in Lhasa in 1696, the Fire Mouse year. Sangye Gyatso wrote many books on astrology, especially Vaidurya-Karpo (White Beryl), and medicine, including Vaidurya sNgon-po (Blue Beryl), the most popular commentary on the rGyud-bzhi.
Malcom Smith thinks vaidurya is saphire, which also comes in white and blue varieties. Yeshe thinks not, because sapphire has a distinct name in Sanskrit. So it seems there are three possibilites. Scandalous. What am I supposed to visualize in my meditation?
