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The Gift of Work: Overcoming Workplace Burnout and Finding Satisfaction in Your 9-to-5
It’s not just your job – it’s your life.
Discover the inspiring philosophy that helped thousands overcome burnout and find happiness in and out of work.
Why do we work? Each of us has a sense of the role work plays in our lives – it is where we spend most of our time, our thoughts, and our energy. Yet work has become a means to an a necessity we bear so we can “live the rest of our lives.” And so, we become disengaged from our work; we become dissatisfied; we burn out.
The truth is that we cannot survive without work, but we also cannot work simply to survive.
In The Gift of Work, Tibetan master Tarthang Tulku offers a vision of work as a genuine and fulfilling spiritual path, one that can be walked by anyone and integrated deeply into daily life. Introducing this approach (which Tarthang Tulku calls Skillful Means), 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 encourage appreciation, concentration, and whole-hearted engagement.
Previously published as Skillful Means
Discover the inspiring philosophy that helped thousands overcome burnout and find happiness in and out of work.
Why do we work? Each of us has a sense of the role work plays in our lives – it is where we spend most of our time, our thoughts, and our energy. Yet work has become a means to an a necessity we bear so we can “live the rest of our lives.” And so, we become disengaged from our work; we become dissatisfied; we burn out.
The truth is that we cannot survive without work, but we also cannot work simply to survive.
In The Gift of Work, Tibetan master Tarthang Tulku offers a vision of work as a genuine and fulfilling spiritual path, one that can be walked by anyone and integrated deeply into daily life. Introducing this approach (which Tarthang Tulku calls Skillful Means), 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 encourage appreciation, concentration, and whole-hearted engagement.
Previously published as Skillful Means
126 pages, Kindle Edition
Published March 24, 2024
34 people are currently reading
24 people want to read
About the author
Tarthang Tulku
166 books79 followersTarthang Tulku Rinpoche (དར་ཐན་སྤྲུལ་སྐུ་རིན་པོ་ཆེ dar-than sprul-sku rin-po-che) is a Tibetan teacher ("lama") in the Nyingma ("old translation") tradition. Having received a complete Buddhist education in pre-diaspora Tibet, he taught philosophy at Sanskrit University in India from 1962 to 1968, and emigrated to America in 1969, where he settled in Berkeley, CA. He is often credited as having introduced the Tibetan medicine practice of Kum Nye (སྐུ་མཉེ sku mnye་, "subtle-body massage") to the West.
In 1963, he founded Dharma Publishing in Varanasi, India, moving it to California in 1971. The main purpose of the publishing house is to preserve and distribute Tibetan Buddhist teachings and to bring these teachings to the West.
Neither Rinpoche nor Tulku are surnames; the former is an honorific applied to respected teachers meaning "Precious One," while the latter is a title given to those who have be recognized an the reincarnation of a previous lama.
In 1963, he founded Dharma Publishing in Varanasi, India, moving it to California in 1971. The main purpose of the publishing house is to preserve and distribute Tibetan Buddhist teachings and to bring these teachings to the West.
Neither Rinpoche nor Tulku are surnames; the former is an honorific applied to respected teachers meaning "Precious One," while the latter is a title given to those who have be recognized an the reincarnation of a previous lama.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
January 25, 2026
Buddhist approach to work
May 4, 2024
Wonderful Read
A deep, meaningful & inspiring read on the gift of work. Since work covers half of our lifetime, the purpose in work is imperative to our well being. Highly recommend!
A deep, meaningful & inspiring read on the gift of work. Since work covers half of our lifetime, the purpose in work is imperative to our well being. Highly recommend!
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews