The notion of skillful means is something distinctive to Buddhism as compared with other religions, and is related to the fundamental view expressed in the earliest Buddhist teachings that the actual content of the Buddhaʼs enlightenment is not expressible in language. In this sense of the term, any sort of teaching that occurs through language can be seen as a skillful method. Another way this problem is expressed in Buddhist texts is by making the distinction between relative truth (saṃvṛti-satya; 俗諦) and absolute truth (paramârtha-satya; 眞諦). The distinction is also made in Chinese with terms such as 權 (gauging, temporary, or relative) and 眞實 (real, true). The full form of the word in Chinese is 方便善巧.

The concept of skillful means was elaborated and used in a variety of ways in the course of the development of East Asian Buddhism, where a taxonomical scheme would be adopted with which a school would valorize its own teaching with that of other (especially earlier) schools by declaring the teaching of oneʼs own school to be the real truth, and the teachings of other schools to be provisional. Thus, the teachings of other Buddhist schools were not labeled as being non-Buddhist or false, but simply as less profound. The broadest usage of this strategy is seen in the characterization of Mahāyāna vis-à-vis 'Hīnayāna,' where the Mahayanists claim that the Buddha used the expedient and limited method in his teaching until near the end of his days, after which he enlarged it to the preaching of his final and complete truth.

The most extensive usage of this kind of practice is seen in the teaching categorizations developed out of the Lotus Sutra, mainly by Zhiyi 智顗, wherein Tiantai speaks of the three vehicles 三乘 as expedient or partial revelations, and of the one vehicle 一乘 as the complete revelation of universal Buddhahood. The second chapter of the Lotus Sutra is entitled 'skillful means'  方便品.

In a broad sense, Chinese Buddhists utilized the doctrine of skillful means to help deal with the hermeneutical problem of reconciling the disparities among the different teachings attributed to the Buddha—to explain that the differences in the teachings of the Buddha delivered in his forty-nine year ministry were the result of his addressing different audiences. Thus, the Chinese practice of doctrinal taxonomy 判教 also developed out of the basic Buddhist principle of skillful means. The decision of rendering 方便 into English as 'skillful' or as 'expedient' is often difficult, because the connotations shift according to the context as (1) the teaching being something to marvel at—the fact that the Buddha can present these difficult truths in everyday language (thus, skillful), yet that (2) they are teachings of a lower order as compared to the ultimate truth, and are far removed from reflecting reality, and are a kind of 'stopgap' measure (thus, expedient) (Skt. upāyatā, mahôpāya).