Is our polarization simply the result of politics and the sort of partisanship that characterizes political campaigns of the sort we have witnessed during 2020? Daisaku Ikeda argues that the real problem is that all of us too easily settle for superficiality: “In society today," he says, "truthful words are few. Words of self-interest and calculation deluge us, as do frivolous words and words intended to cause injury. These days, we simply don’t hear words of truth that issue from the depths of one person’s heart and penetrate the heart of another.” He...
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We are pleased to announce that our FIRST EVER virtual Ikeda Forum webinar will take place on Thursday, December 10th! In this year filled with unforeseen and daunting challenges, we look forward to exploring the timely theme, "Value Creation: Our Unlimited Power to Face Overwhelming Challenges."
In a lecture he delivered at Teachers College in 1996, Daisaku Ikeda described value creation as "the capacity to find meaning, to enhance one's own...
With the ongoing spread of COVID-19 and the continuing fight for racial justice, it can feel overwhelming to add one more challenge to the table. Yet, climate change is a long-term issue that is inseparable from the prevailing challenges that we have faced this year. It is Center founder Daisaku Ikeda’s conviction that in the midst of such large-scale issues like climate change, when facing them head on, we find in them “a remarkable diversity of opportunities for human beings to give expression to their limitless potential.” Thus, if we can tackle the climate crisis together, we then can...
August 2020 marks the 75th anniversary of the tragic bombings of Hiroshima (August 6, 1945) and Nagasaki (August 9, 1945). In his statement of commemoration, issued on behalf of the Soka Gakkai Council on Peace Issues, Ikeda Center President Yoshiki Tanigawa considers the bombings in the context of contemporary nuclear weapons abolition efforts. (Read the full statement here.) Here is an an excerpt:
This year, which further coincides with the 75th...
On July 16, we hosted our third virtual dialogue event of the year, called "The Poetic Spirit: Our Power to Reconnect a Divided World." It centered around a panel discussion between Dr. Sarah Wider (Professor of English, Colgate University) and Ikeda Center Youth Committee members Isaiah Moon and Valentina Frasisti. Two hundred fifty participants from 19 countries joined via Zoom. Here's a quote from Daisaku Ikeda that helped shape the discussion:
The poetic spirit can be found in any human endeavor. When the spirit of poetry lives within us, even objects...
The occasion for this interview with Bernice Lerner was the publication of her book All the Horrors of War: A Jewish Girl, a British Doctor, and the Liberation of Bergen-Belsen. The girl of the title is Lerner's mother, Rachel Genuth, who narrowly survived the trials and atrocities of the Nazi concentration camps. The doctor is Brigadier H. L. Glyn Hughes, who was in charge of medical needs and services for the British Second Army, which liberated Bergen-Belsen on April 15, 1945. In her book, Lerner skillfully and movingly interweaves the stories of these two...
Because it was conducted on Zoom, our June 11 dialogue event was called a “virtual” one. Yet there was nothing simulated or “less than” about the conversations that took place when 250 participants from 19 countries around the world gathered online for “Asking Questions Together: What Is Our Path Forward?” The panel discussion featured Dr. Ceasar McDowell (Professor of Civic Design, Massachusetts Institute of Technology) and Ikeda Center Student Ambassadors Giulia Pellizzato (Postdoctoral Fellow, Brown University) and Anthony Jojola (Masters candidate, Boston College) who shared thoughts...
As a center committed to peace, justice and the dignity of all people, we stand in solidarity with everyone across the United States and the world who is demonstrating to end systemic racism and violence. The killings of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade and countless others reflect a disregard for Black lives that has plagued this country for far too long. Enough is enough. Black Lives Matter.
Each of these individuals was a family member, a friend and a loved one. They were all invaluable members of their communities. They did not...
On Thursday, April 16, 2020, the Ikeda Center hosted its first ever virtual dialogue, “A Time To Reflect & Reimagine: Creating A Better Future Now.“ The event featured a youth-led panel discussion centered on Daisaku Ikeda’s three elements of global citizenship and how we can use them as a framework to reimagine a better future, especially during this time when the whole world is grappling with a new way of living. Afterwards, the 133 participants broke out into small group discussions and offered their reflections.
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April 12, 2020
Dear Friends,
Like our fellow global citizens, we staff of the Ikeda Center are doing all we can to avoid spreading the contagion of COVID-19 and are grateful for the brave souls fighting on the front lines against this global pandemic. Also, as we hope and pray for an early end to the outbreak, we are digging deeper within our own hearts to find an even stronger aspiration toward a shared future of respect for the dignity of life.
In a recent article, Center founder Daisaku Ikeda recalled British historian Arnold Toynbee’s conviction that “those living...
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Ikeda Center for Peace, Learning, and Dialogue
396 Harvard Street, Cambridge, MA 02138
Phone: (617) 491.1090 Fax: (617) 491.1169