A Bhikkhu (Pāli) or Bhiksu (Sanskrit) is a fully orained male Buddhist monastic. Female monastics are called Bhikkhunis. Bhikkhus and Bhikkhunis keep many precepts: they live by the vinaya's framework of monastic discipline, the basic rules of which are called the patimokkha. Their lifestyle is shaped so as to support their spiritual practice, to live a simple and meditative life, and attain Nirvana.