Bhikkhu

Lore & Background

The historical Buddha, Prince Siddhartha, having abandoned a life of pleasure and status, lived as an alms mendicant as part of his śramaṇa lifestyle. His more serious students who renounced their lives as householders and came to study full-time under his supervision also adopted this lifestyle. These full-time student members of the sangha became the community of ordained monastics who wandered from town to city throughout the year, living off alms and stopping in one place only for the Vassa, the rainy months of the monsoon season. In the Dhammapada commentary of Buddhaghoṣa, a bhikkhu is defined as 'the person who sees danger (in samsara or cycle of rebirth)' (Pāli: Bhayaṃ ikkhatīti: bhikkhu). Therefore, he seeks ordination to obtain release from the cycle of rebirth. The Dhammapada states: 'He is not a monk just because he lives on others' alms. Not by adopting outward form does one become a true monk. Whoever here (in the Dispensation) lives a holy life, transcending both merit and demerit, and walks with understanding in this world—he is truly called a monk.'

Buddha accepted female bhikkhunis after his step-mother Mahapajapati Gotami organized a women's march to Vesāli and Buddha requested her to accept the Eight Garudhammas. So, Gotami agreed to accept the Eight Garudhammas and was accorded the status of the first bhikkhuni. Subsequent women had to undergo full ordination to become nuns.

Reader's Guide

The bhikkhu represents the ideal of renunciation and spiritual discipline in Buddhism. The bhikkhu order, in its earliest form, upheld continuous movement for eight months a year, and ate one meal a day, received from begging. The ordination process typically begins with becoming a novice (śrāmaṇera or sāmanera) through a rite known as 'going forth' (pabbajja), subject to the Ten Precepts, followed by full ordination (upasampada). Bhikkhus are subject to a much longer set of rules known as the Pātimokkha (Theravada) or Prātimokṣa (Mahayana and Vajrayana). In Mahayana Buddhism, Vinaya based monasticism is part of the system of 'vows of individual liberation'. East Asian Buddhism generally follows the Dharmaguptaka Vinaya, while Tibetan Buddhism's monastic sangha follows the Mulasarvastivada Vinaya. In Japanese Buddhism, the tradition of ordaining true Buddhist monks and nuns who adhere to the Vinaya has been effectively lost, with non-celibate clergy commonly referred to as sōryo, distinct from bhikkhu (biku). In Korean Buddhism, the Jogye Order is fully celibate while the Taego Order has both celibate monastics and non-celibate Japanese-style priests. The special dress of ordained Buddhist monks is called kāṣāya in Sanskrit, referred to in English as robes. The idea of wearing a simple durable form of protection for the body from weather and climate is ancient and goes back to Indian sramana traditions.

Did You Know?

• A person under the age of 20 cannot be ordained as a bhikkhu or bhikkhuni but can be ordained as a śrāmaṇera or śrāmaṇērī.
• The bhikkhu order, in its earliest form, upheld continuous movement for eight months a year, and ate one meal a day, received from begging.
• In Tibetan Buddhism, the upāsaka, pravrajyā and bhikṣu ordinations are traditionally taken at ages six, fourteen and twenty-one or older, respectively.
• In 9th century Japan, the monk Saichō promoted a form of monastic ordination that relied only on the Mahayana bodhisattva precepts of the Brahmajala Sutra, marking a radical break with Buddhist monastic tradition.

From Potato Farm to Forest Hermitage

Geoffrey DeGraff grew up on a potato farm on Long Island, New York, before his family relocated to the Washington, D.C. suburbs. Described by Tricycle as a "very serious, independent little kid," he carried that self-reliant temperament into Oberlin College in the early 1970s, where he deliberately stayed out of campus political activism because he did not enjoy following a crowd. His defining concern at the time was not the Vietnam War but a close friend's suicide attempt. A religious-studies course caught his attention only when he learned it included meditation, which he framed as a skill he could master—unlike the prayer he associated with Christianity, which felt unpredictable. After two years of searching, he located a forest teacher, Ajahn Fuang Jotiko, a Kammatthana monk in the lineage of Ajahn Lee Dhammadaro. A brief stay ended in malaria, and he returned home to weigh academia against monastic life. When he came back, Ajahn Fuang made him promise to either succeed in meditation or die in Thailand, leaving no room for compromise.

A Decade in the Forest

After ordination, Ṭhānissaro spent ten years in the close orbit of Ajahn Fuang Jotiko, a Kammatthana practitioner who had trained under the renowned Ajahn Lee. By his third year he had become his teacher's personal attendant, a role that deepened when Ajahn Fuang's psoriasis worsened to the point that the young American had to remain at his side almost constantly. It was during these years of shared forest life that Ajahn Fuang spoke candidly about the future of the tradition. He told his Western student that carrying the forest lineage into America would likely become his life's work, believing—as many of his generation did—that the practice would gradually fade in Thailand only to find new soil in the West. The forest itself, in Ṭhānissaro's later teaching, is not merely a backdrop but an active teacher: the sparse, demanding environment cultivates mental qualities that dense urban monastic communities cannot. Barbara Roether has drawn a parallel to Thoreau's Walden, noting that the Thai forest tradition emerged around the turn of the twentieth century as a counter-movement to the growing urbanization of Theravada monastic life, with monks like Ajahn Mun Bhuridatto retreating from social obligations to devote themselves wholly to meditation.

Building a Monastery in the West

Yet the position came with political strings, and as a Westerner in a monastery founded by and for Thai monks, Ṭhānissaro felt he would lack genuine authority. He also recalled his teacher's own words: the forest tradition did not work well in large groups, and one should keep moving. He declined. He also serves as Treasurer of the order in the United States. The monastery, nestled in the hills of San Diego County, became a living bridge between the austere Thai forest lineage and a Western audience hungry for a practice rooted in direct experience rather than institutional ritual.

Translations, Writings & Doctrinal Convictions

Perhaps no single contribution has made Ṭhānissaro more visible to the global Buddhist community than his translations. He rendered the Dhammapada and nearly a thousand suttas from the Sutta Pitaka into English, and he also translated the dhamma talks of the Thai forest ajahns and Ajahn Lee's meditation manuals from Thai. All of this work is available free of charge on his personal website. Beyond translation, he authored several original dhamma works, including With Each and Every Breath, a basic meditation guide; Handful of Leaves, a five-volume anthology of sutta translations; The Buddhist Monastic Code, a two-volume reference on monastic discipline; and Wings to Awakening, a study of the factors taught by the Buddha. Doctrinally, he takes the Pali Canon as ultimately authoritative and explicitly rejects the kasina meditation practice outlined in the Visuddhimagga, labeling certain "deep jhana" techniques drawn from the commentaries as "wrong concentration." He prefers the term "unbinding" for nibbana and describes the self not as a fixed entity but as an ongoing activity—a strategy for avoiding suffering and maximizing happiness.