Translation: Verses 32 through 37

Verses of the root text are in bold, and my thoughts in italics...

32:

ལུས་ནི་ཤིན་ཏུ་འགོར་བས་ཀྱང་།

བདེ་བའི་བདག་ཉིད་ཏུ་མི་འགྱུར་ཏེ།

རང་བཞིན་གཞན་གྱིས་ཟིལ་གནོན་ཅེས།

བྱ་བ་རིགས་པ་མ་ཡིན་ནོ།

Even if one is expecting it for a long time,

the essence of the self won't blossom into happiness.

To say that some other source of brilliance will transform it

is also not logical or reasonable.

33:

མཆོག་ལ་ཡིད་ཀྱི་སྡུག་བསྔལ་ཏེ།

ཐ་མལ་རྣམས་ལ་ལུས་ཀྱིས་སོ།

སྡུག་བསྔལ་གཉིས་ཀྱིས་འཇིག་རྟེན་འདི།

ཉིན་རེ་ཉིན་རེ་འཇོམས་པར་བྱེད།

(Generally), mental suffering comes to those who are well-off,

While the the source is physical for those in ordinary circumstances...

These two forms of suffering are, each and every day,

overwhelming the beings of this universe...

Allergies, for example, are a physical hypersensitivity: it's theorized that stringently sterile environments can be a factor in inducing the development of allergies. Similarly, a mind without physical ailment is more prone to develop a mental hypersensitivity to minor discomforts. The verse literally says mental suffering comes to the higher class, and the physical suffering comes to the commoners, but I think this metaphor is a bit outdated. Really, the point is, whoever you are, regardless of your class, if you are physically well-off, relatively comfortable, your capacity for mental suffering increases. If you are in ordinary circumstances, then you are worried about your physical ailments.

34:

བདེ་བ་རྟོག་པའི་དབང་གྱུར་ཅིང་།

རྟོག་པ་སྡུག་བསྔལ་དབང་གྱུར་པ།

དེ་ཕྱིར་ཀུན་ན་སྡུག་བསྔལ་ལས།

ཤིན་ཏུ་སྟོབས་ལྡན་ཅི་ཡང་མེད།

Your happiness is governed by your thoughts,

but your thoughts are governed by your suffering.

Because of that, what could exist

that is as exceedingly powerful as suffering?

35:

ཇི་ལྟ་ཇི་ལྟར་དུས་འགྲོ་བ།

དེ་ལྟ་དེ་ལྟར་སྡུག་བསྔལ་འཕེལ།

དེ་ཕྱིར་བདེ་བ་ལུས་འདི་ཡི།

གཞན་པོ་ལྟ་བུར་སྣང་བར་འགྱར།

Just as the extent of a lifetime accumulates years,

So, too, does the extent of sufferings multiply;

Thus, it's as if the experience of your own physical pleasure

Didn't occur in your body at all, but merely as a holographic projection...

The Tibetan doesn't literally make the metaphor of a “hologram”, that's my modernist interpretation. A more literal translation might read: “The pleasure of this body becomes illuminated/appears as another/someone else's, like a reflection...” I think the general idea is that this pleasure is illusory, and (in retrospect), it's almost like it's occurring/occurred to someone else, like an out of body experience... Another translation labels it "alien," which I like too... Upon reflection, I'm assuming the verse is referring to past happinesses, b/c it draws a causal connection between the first two lines and the second two. As if, when you're older (have accumulated time) and your sufferings have multiplied, and you think back on your pleasurable experiences, it's like they happened to somebody else, or as if they didn't happen at all... Even I feel similarly about my childhood; although, in some sense, I feel that it was "me," it's so far away that it also seems like some other little boy, I've changed so much since then... And certainly small, pleasurable experiences aren't remembered with the same intensity or "real"ness as when they happened...

36:

སྡུག་བསྔལ་གྱི་ནི་རྒྱུ་མང་པོ།

ནད་རྣམས་དང་གཞན་སྣང་གྱུར་པ།

དེ་སྙེད་དུ་ནི་མི་རྣམས་ལ།

བདེ་བའི་རྒྱུ་དག་སྣང་མ་ཡིན།

The causes of suffering are many,

sickness, pain, injury and more;

As many as there are, they all appear to human beings;

Yet the causes of happiness do not arise (so easily).

37:

འཕེལ་བཞིན་པ་ཡི་བདེ་བ་ལས།

ཇི་ལྟར་བཟློག་པ་མཐོང་གྱུར་པ།

དེ་ལྟར་སྡུག་བསྔལ་འཕེལ་བཞིན་ལས།

བཟློག་པ་ཡོད་པ་མ་ཡིན་ནོ།

While happiness is increasing,

you'll observe that a reversal of its extent is imminent;

Dissimilarly, as suffering is increasing,

such a reversal doesn't necessarily exist.

The commentary says here that it's easy, during the increasing of happiness, to suddenly turn to misery, while it's difficult to get out of the rut of suffering. However, I think this verse has a slightly different meaning་(one directly tied to the previous verses). That is, as happiness or pleasure grows, increases, or expands, this is directly tied to the expansion of future suffering (they go hand-in-hand). The CAUSES for suffering are a direct consequence of the expansion of pleasure (suffering is entailed by any happiness you find). And this “expansion” of pleasure is directly analogous to the “accumulation” in earlier verses. Any happiness one finds, just like any accumulation one gains, is something that will inevitability be lost with time. This is definite, because of the nature of change, impermanence, and suffering. However, suffering is not the same. That is, the causes for suffering are entailed by pleasure/happiness, but as for the causes of happiness, they are NOT entailed by suffering; there is no gravity that will naturally pull you out of suffering. Suffering, in that way, is the natural state: happiness is like being propelled into space, and the gravity of suffering is always existing, the imminent law of nature that will pull you back down... But once you are down, there is no guarantee that anything will propel you back up. That takes a great investment of energy (as entropy teaches us)...