Bhikshu

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A religious adherent who has chosen to abandon material possessions in pursuit of spiritual goals while typically relying on charity for survival
2. A devoted practitioner who engages in meditation and community service after renouncing worldly affairs and living off alms from others
3. A spiritual seeker dedicated to philosophical study and moral living, having given up personal wealth and material comforts to embrace a life dependent on communal support

Etymology: Sanskrit "bhikṣu" meant "beggar" or "mendicant," and in religious use it referred to a person who lived by alms rather than by work or property. The word is rooted in the verb "bhiks," to beg or ask for alms, and it carried that sense of renunciation into the vocabulary of Indian religious life, where Buddhist and other ascetic monks were all called by it. English took the word in its transliterated form, keeping the Sanskrit sense of a monk who depends on donations from others. Its meaning in English is therefore narrower than the broad Sanskrit "beggar," pointing specifically to the Buddhist monastic tradition.