The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (426 page)

see
MU-CHOU CH'EN-TSUN-SU
.

 
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Bollandists
.

A small group of Belgian
Jesuit
scholars of hagiology. It was begun by John van Bolland (1596–1665) to publish the
Acta Sanctorum
, a massive critical collection of the lives of Christian
saints
.

 
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(Tib., ‘invocation’). The non-Buddhist religion of Tibet which was indigenous and unorganized before the first diffusion of Buddhism there (7th cent.), but which became organized at the time of the second diffusion (11th cent.). In spite of claims of uninterrupted continuity, however, any connection between ancient and modern Bön is extremely tenuous.
The nature of original Bön—beyond probable
animism
and
shamanism
and definite non-literacy—is hard to determine, since all early descriptions of it are Buddhist and intended to discredit. Contrary to the popular misconception that Buddhism was significantly influenced by Bön when it entered Tibet, it is clear that what is known of Bön today is almost completely influenced by
Mah
y
na
Buddhism, which was itself transplanted from India into Tibet virtually unchanged.

 
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Bon
(rituals, festival of the dead)
:

see
ULLAMBANA
;
FESTIVALS
.

 
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(1221–74).
Govanni di Fidanza, Christian mystic and saint. Born near Viterbo in Italy, he believed that he had been rescued from illness by the intercession of
St Francis
. He entered the order of the Friars Minor, and became minister-general in 1256. His
Itinerarium Mentis in Deum
describes the way that leads to God by the path of his illumination.
Leo XIII
called Bonaventura ‘the prince of mystics’; E.
Gilson
called him ‘a St Francis of Assisi gone philosopher and lecturing at the university of Paris’.

 
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