I've heard His Holiness refer to the lower, middle and higher scopes as "initial," "middling" and "supreme."
Here Lama Zopa Rinpoche provides an alternate translation of as lower, middle and higher "capable being."
Kyebu translated should be “capable being,” not “lower scope,” “middle scope,” “higher scope.” That is a kind of sign that one didn’t really pick up, understand, the meaning of kyebu. It is kind of not full, but it has become known but kyebu, kyebu chung, kyebu dring, kyebu chen are lower capable being, middle capable being, higher capable being.
The ordinary capable being is one who only works for this life, only thinks of this life’s happiness, only that, the happiness of this life, only that, nothing else, working for this life, like ants, like worms. An ordinary capable being does that. So it is “capable”; in the Lam Drön it clarifies that, in the Lamp of the Path to Enlightenment.
Kyebu chungwa [the lower capable being]: for some months train the mind in that, kyebu chung. Then after that, some months on kyebu dring, [the middle capable being], then some months on kyebu chenpo [the higher capable being], jangchub sem [bodhichitta] and yangdagpai tawa, right view. So, you can divide the year. That is tsölje kyi nyongwa, developing the experience with effort.
