Event Recaps: Dialogue Nights

What better way to honor the Ikeda Center’s twenty-fifth anniversary as an institute devoted to peace, learning, and dialogue than to host an event engaging young people in a participatory investigation of the characteristics of genuine, transformative dialogue?

Questions of identity are among the most fraught a person can face. This is because they are at once intensely personal and intensely social. We are constantly defining ourselves, and being defined by others, with real consequences for our ability to succeed and be happy in life.

The energetic presence of more than forty Boston-area university students and young professionals modeled a compelling answer to the evening’s subtheme, which asked: “What Is the Cure?”

What better time than now, with polarization and division so ascendant, to celebrate our shared humanity? With this spirit of optimism, the Ikeda Center hosted its second dialogue night event of 2018, “Learning to Live Together: Rediscovering Our Fundamental Connectedness."

Mr. Ikeda insists that “the ‘invisible arrow’ of evil to be overcome is not to be found in races and classes external to ourselves, but embedded in our own hearts.

The evening's topic emerged from planning discussions with M.I.T.'s Ceasar McDowell that explored the desire and struggle of young people to speak up about important issues.

The participants included a nice mix of Boston-area university students and young professionals, all of whom readily admitted they spend a considerable amount of time focused on their phones each day.