Bhikkhu · Pāli: bhikkhu; Skt: bhikṣu

A bhikkhu is a fully ordained Buddhist monk. The Access to Insight glossary defines him as a man who has given up the householder’s life to live a life of heightened virtue in accordance with the Vinaya in general, and the Patimokkha rules in particular. The Vinaya is the monastic discipline, six volumes in printed text, whose rules and traditions define every aspect of a monastic’s way of life; its central code, the Patimokkha, consists of 227 rules for monks and 311 for nuns.

Ordination comes in two stages. The first part of the procedure is the going forth into homelessness (pabbajja), and a candidate who stops there is a samanera, a novice. For the second stage the candidate must be male and at least twenty years old, and when he is ready and old enough he asks the community of monks for upasampada, the acceptance that is full ordination. In the early discourses bhikkhus are one of four assemblies making up the Buddhist community, along with bhikkhunis and male and female lay followers.

Which code a monk actually lives by depends on tradition, even though the shape of the renunciant life is shared. Monastics in China have followed the Dharmaguptaka Vinaya since it was imposed there by imperial order early in the eighth century, so East Asian ordination descends from a different Vinaya lineage than the Pali one described here. For the daily round of alms, meditation, study and work that the rules frame, see the life of a Buddhist monk.