snying po

Another multi-word that is used to build more complex words is སྙིང་པོ། snying po. It means essence, core quintessence, the very thing. This construct is seen in many commentaries and texts, so it's worth learning.

Examples are: སྣིང་པོའི་བསྟན་པ། snying po'i bstan pa -- essential teaching.དེ་གཤེགས།་སྙིང་པོ། de gshegs snying po, tathagatagarbha in Sanskrit, or enlightened essence, Buddha nature.དེ་གཤེགས de gshegs is tathagata, thus-gone; Buddhas have transcended ordinary awareness.

Also,བྱང་ཆུབ་ཀྱི་སྙིང་པོ། byang chub kyi snying po -- essence of enlightenment, and ཤེས་རབ་སྙིང་པོ། shes rab snying po, the essence of knowledge, prajnaparamita hrdaya sutra, or Heart Sutra as we know it, as this sutra describes the སྙིང་པོ། snying po of ཤེས་རབ། shes rab (or prajna in Sanskrit).