Skillful Means: Pattern for Success

It's not work- it's your life!  In Skillful Means, Tibetan Buddhist teacher Tarthang Tulkuoffers a vision of work as a genuine and fulfilling spiritual path, one that can be walked by anyone and integrated deeply into daily life. Beginning with the invitation to discover inner freedom, the text is filled with practical methods for developing awareness, opening to change and sharing our life and insights with others. Twenty four exercises  help us see the attitudes we bring to work, and to encourage appreciation, concentration, and whole-hearted engagement. 

"Life exacts a price for less than full participation. We lose touch with the human values and qualities that spring naturally from a full engagement with work and life: integrity, honesty, loyalty, responsibility, and cooperation." - Tarthang Tulku




Noting that most Americans make strong distinctions between work and their private time, tending to regard work as a burdensome necessity rather than as an opportunity for growth and accomplishment, Tarthang Tulku introduced Skillful Means as a way to help readers find greater satisfaction in work and life. For Dharma students, work can be an effective spiritual exercise, a practice in mindfulness and the means of perfecting six spiritual qualities, from generosity to discipline and patience, foundation of vigor, concentration, and wisdom. Skillful Means points out how the discipline of work develops awareness, strengthens concentration, and stimulates energy.




First published in 1976, Skillful Means may have been the first book to bring a spiritual perspective to the American work ethic. Empowering individuals with ways to build meaning into daily life, Skillful Means set forth a new philosophy of work. It has been adopted for required reading in college and university classes throughout the United States. Its principles inspired the formation of Skillful Means Press, a commercial printing company, and its successor, Dharma Enterprises, which instituted training programs in Skillful Means.

Tarthang Tulku, Rinpoche is Tibetan lama born in Golok, in Eastern Tibet. He left Tibet for exile in India in 1958. While a refugee in India Rinpoche taught at Sanskrit University, Benares, and began reprinting endangered Tibetan texts. In 1968 he moved to the United States where he has lived and worked ever since. Rinpoche has founded more than 20 organizations, preserving and promoting Buddhist wisdom both in Asia and in the West.  Tarthang Tulku is the author of more than two dozen books, including Gesture of Balance; Time, Space, and Knowledge- A New Vision of Reality; Kum Nye Tibetan Yoga; Skillful Means, Revelations of Mind, and Caring.