The term mendicant refers to "begging" or otherwise relying on charitable donations, and is most widely used for religious followers or ascetics who rely exclusively on charity to survive. Fishers of Men, oil on panel by Adriaen van de Venne (1614) Various religious symbols Religion is commonly defined as a group of beliefs concerning the supernatural, sacred, or divine, and the moral codes, practices, values, institutions and rituals associated with such belief. ... Asceticism denotes a life which is characterized by refraining from worldly pleasures (austerity). ...

In principle, mendicant orders or followers do not own property, either individually or collectively, and have taken a vow of poverty, in order that all their time and energy could be expended on preaching their religion or way of life and serving the poor.

Many religious orders adhere to a mendicant way of life, including the Catholic Mendicant Orders, Hindu ascetics, and monastic schools of Buddhism where the mendicant tradition still survives, particularly in many Southeast Asian countries where Theravada Buddhism is practised. Buddhist Pali scriptures use the term bhikku for mendicant. The Mendicant (or Begging) Orders are religious orders which depend directly on the riches of the people for their livelihood. ... Hinduism (Sanskrit , also known as ) and ) is a worldwide religious tradition that is based on the Vedas, and is among the oldest still practiced today. ... Monasticism (from Greek: monachos—a solitary person) is the religious practice of renouncing all worldly pursuits in order to fully devote ones life to spiritual work. ... Buddhism (more correctly Pāli Buddhadhamma or Sanskrit Buddhadharma) is a religion and philosophy based on the teachings of the Buddha, Siddhārtha Gautama, a prince of the Shakyas, whose lifetime is traditionally given as 566 to 486 BCE. Buddhism spread throughout the ancient Indian sub-continent in the five... Theravada (Pali; Sanskrit: Sthaviravada) is one of the eighteen (or twenty) Nikāya schools that formed early in the history of Buddhism. ... For the town and district in Rajasthan, see Pali, Rajasthan For the Ganapati temple of pali and place in Maharastra, see Ballaleshwar Pali Pāli (Devanagari पालि) is a Middle Indo-Aryan dialect or prakrit. ... Debating bhikkhu in Tibet A bhikkhu (male) or bhikkhuni (female) is a fully ordained Buddhist monk. ...

See also

• Simple living