Translation: Page Seven

So, as for those whose lives are imbued with sentience, this sentience really only exists from moment-to-moment, and not in any permanent way. Indeed, all conditioned existence is marked by this momentariness. Furthermore, a human birth, of all the countless types of birth, is exceedingly rare, which is why the capacity to really recognize the essence of your own true nature is so exceptionally precious. If you never-the-less believe that life is not momentary, but more like the flow of a continuous stream, cohesive and indivisible, then you may feel as if it is perfectly reasonable to cling to your reality as such. Here is my reply: You desire a long life, yet you don't desire wrinkles or grey hair or any of the other inevitable signs of aging! Alas, how misguidedly you treat your precious human birth, for there is no other way to regard such a life but as something holy!

སེམས་ཅན་སུ་ལའང་གསོན་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་དེ་ནི་སེམས་ཀྱི་སྐད་ཅིག་མ་གཅིག་ཏྲམ་ལས་གཞན་མེད་དེ་འདུ་བྱེད་རྣམས་སྐད་ཅིག་མ་ཉིད་ཀྱི་ཕྱིར་རོ། སྐྱེ་བོ་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་དེ་མ་ངེས་ཤིང་མི་རིག་པ་དེས་ན་བདག་ཉིད་ཀྱི་རང་བཞིན་ཤེས་པ་དཀོན་པའོ། གསོན་པ་སྐད་ཅིག་མ་ཡིན་མོད་ཀྱི་དེ་ལྟ་ན་ཡང་རྒྱུན་མི་ཆད་པས་ཚེ་རིང་བ་ཉིད་ཀྱི་ཕྱིར་ན་དེ་ལ་མངོན་པར་ཞེན་པ་རིགས་པ་ཉིད་དོ་ཞེ་ན། བཤད་པར་བྱ་སྟེ། ཁྱོད་ཉམས་པ་མེད་པར་རིང་དུ་གསོན་པ་ལ་དགའ་ཞིང་། གཉེར་མ་དང་མགོ་སྐྱ་བ་ལ་སོགས་པའི་རྒན་པོར་བྱུང་བ་ཉིད་ལ་ཀྱོད་མི་དགའ་ན། ཨེ་མ་ཁྱོད་ཀྱི་སྤྱོད་པ་ལོག་པ་འདི་སྐྱེ་བོ་ནི། ཁྱོད་དང་འདྲ་བ་རྣམས་ལ་དམ་པ་ལྟ་བུར་སྣང་གི་གཞན་ལ་ནི་མ་ཡིན་ནོ།

Another in a series of translations from our text... For this one, I'll now note the specific considerations I took in rendering the text into English, with an aim of transmitting meaning, while trying to maintain some flow and style of the original...

1. In the very first line, "imbued with sentience" is my translation for the Tibetan term 'sems can,' which literally means "mind-possessor," or "one who possesses or has the quality of mind." Although this is most often translated as "sentient being(s)," I felt that in this context this was more appropriate, given that the very next phrase describes this sentient quality 'sems,' that of mind or cognition, as momentary. So a more traditional translation may read, "So, as for the lives of sentient beings, their mind only exists for a moment at a time." I think this loses a touch of the nuance of the Tibetan, which utilizes repetition of the term for cognition itself to emphasize the point that it is the quality of sentience itself, the identifying quality of our own nature, our consciousness, something we believe to be ontologically solid and possessed by ourselves, is actually momentary...
2. Also, literally, "not in any other way," which I've translated as "permanent" for emphasis...
3. Although I only imply it, it is explicit in the Tibetan. It is because all conditioned existence is momentary that consciousness, or sentience, is also momentary (due to the fact that habitual mind is itself a conditioned phenomenon). Although there is a distinction in Buddhism between material and non-material existence, the only unconditioned phenomenon is enlightenment (although I've heard some schools also include "space" as an unconditioned phenomenon). So although mind's true essence is that non-conditioned state, what we generally conceive of as mind is the habitual or conditioned mind which is obscuring its own true nature. I couldn't think of a non-awkward way to render this into English, without using adding an entirely new sentence, so I've included it here as a footnote...
4. Next is a reiteration of a very common concept, that of the precious human birth. The basic concept is that being born human is exceedingly rare, and thus exceedingly precious, because of certain capacities human beings possess that other births simply don't afford. The ability, for example, to contemplate one's own nature (as rendered in the text), or to come into contact with the dharma (Buddhist teachings) is something many other sentient births don't afford. The implication is not to waste this life, because you have a rare opportunity to better yourself (and since you'll be reborn, it's an opportunity you may not get for a long while). Actually, the noun used for "life" in these few passages can have the meaning "to waste" or "to squander" when used as a verb, so I feel as if these connotations are subtly embedded in this usage. That is, when it is said one desires a long "life," the nuanced implication is you're desiring a long life only in order to squander it (by pursuing attachments and desires like fame, fortune, lots of children, sex, money, rock'n'roll, or whatever). Later, when admonished that this life is holy, the word I've translated as "life" is literally "birth," this precious human birth...
5. The comparison between the continuity vs. momentariness on the one hand and the long life vs. old age on the other here is also not explicit in the Tibetan, but I think the meaning is this: That is, believing that live is a continuum and also desiring a long life are the connected conceptions, and old age, the consequence of a long life, is then the "proof" that life is momentary, showing that a "life" is not a singular entity, but a series of ever-changing moments; and because this is the way it exists, it is contradictory to both say you do desire a long life, yet you do not desire old age and death, for that is at odds with the way things truly exist... So there is some implicit contradiction here in the common conception of things, wherein we desire a long life, yet we don't desire aging...