Join us for our first Dialogue Nights of 2023 on Friday, February 17th at 7 PM!
(Open to Students and Young Professionals)
***RESCHEDULED TO 2/17 DUE TO SEVERE WEATHER***
Bringing Forth Our Greater Self: How Do We Do It?
This year, in celebration of our 30th anniversary, each event in our Dialogue Nights series will explore timely themes from Daisaku Ikeda's speech, "Mahayana Buddhism and Twenty-first Century...
Since 1983, SGI President Daisaku Ikeda has authored peace proposals that integrate philosophical reflections with concrete civic-oriented action steps to point a way forward for everyone seeking to create the global culture of peace. To celebrate the 2022 publication of the 40th proposal, on October 24, 2022, UN Day, the Soka Gakkai International (SGI), working in collaboration with the Ikeda Center for Peace, Learning, and Dialogue, hosted an online panel discussion exploring how the proposals can illuminate and strengthen diverse peacebuilding practices. Called “The Peace Proposals at...
“We are storied into being,” said co-presenter Shirley Yang toward the end of the 2022 Ikeda Forum for Intercultural Dialogue. She was quoting the late historian Vincent Harding from his dialogue with Daisaku Ikeda, America Will Be! It was an apt choice for a concluding thought, since it encapsulated in very few words so many of the evening’s insights. Through the telling of our stories, suggests Harding, it is not just that others get to know us, but that we get to know ourselves. And when others tell us their stories, we not only do we get to know them, but suddenly fresh light...
The most crucial element of dialogue is also the one most difficult to practice. At the recent Dialogue Nights, called “The Courage to Listen: What It Means and Why It Matters,” participants discussed why listening is so hard and what they do to overcome the many obstacles to the kind of deep and compassionate listening that dialogue requires. Held on Friday, September 23, this second in-person Dialogue Nights since the gradual lifting of Covid restrictions at the Ikeda Center was attended by nearly 30 Boston-area university students and young professionals. The event was characterized by...
On August 6, the Ikeda Center hosted the second gathering of its 2022 Global Citizens Seminar. Like the first, it featured the excitement of bringing seven doctoral students together with Professors Jason Goulah of DePaul University and Catia Confortini of Wellesley College to explore how key themes from Daisaku Ikeda’s 2022 peace proposal might impact their respective research endeavors. Since this was the second of two meetings, the discussion concluded with a brainstorm of ways the work of the group could be formalized and carried forward.
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It’s unusual to be able to experience something fresh 22 events into an ongoing series, but that was the case with the recent Dialogue Nights. On July 29, and after two years and six virtual events, nearly 30 Boston-area university students and young professionals returned to the Ikeda Center for an evening of joyful, rejuvenating dialogue, in the process experiencing what one participant called a “fun, real, connecting space.” In her introduction to the event, which was called “Revitalizing Our Relationships: What Does That Look Like Now?,” Center Program Manager Lillian I said that...
On Saturday, July 16, the Ikeda Center hosted its first in-person event since the beginning of the pandemic in early 2020. The occasion was the launch of the 2022 Global Citizens Seminar in which seven doctoral students are gathering for two seminars and engaging in a collaborative project based on Daisaku Ikeda's 2022 Peace Proposal, "Transforming Human History: The Light of Peace and Dignity." This is the second year in the now annual series, which aims to bring emerging scholars from diverse fields into dialogue across disciplines to reckon with the most pressing issues of our time....
This fall, our annual Ikeda Forum for Intercultural Dialogue will be held in person for the first time since 2019! To celebrate this welcome development, we have created a web resource presenting brief highlights from each of the 17 Ikeda Forums held to date. Check it out! It's a great way to a sense for the kinds of ideas and insights that have animated this joyous gathering for going on two decades now. [Posted 7-15-2022]
Go here to engage with our sampling of Ikeda Forum highlights!
Are you a fan of the Ikeda Center's The Dialogue Studio? Hosted by Lillian I, the podcasts do a deep dive into the philosophy and practice of dialogue in all dimensions of our lives. Frequently thought of as just a conflict resolution tool, dialogue actually can be seen, more broadly, as a way of life that brings value and meaning and joy to all our relationships. Recent topics include: Ingredients for Genuine Dialogue, Dialogue as a Path for Growth, Creativity and Connection, and We Are All Poets. Joining Lillian for these conversations are a wide range of dialogicians, including diverse...
There is no realizing of the profoundest, most value-creating purposes of education without properly understanding the nature and role of the individual in teaching and learning, or, indeed, in the pursuit of happy, flourishing lives in general. This conviction courses through Daisaku Ikeda’s new essay collection, The Light of Learning: Selected Writings on Education. An updating and expansion of Ikeda’s earlier volume, Soka Education, it includes a new foreword from Dr. Jason Goulah and provides an effective and stimulating introduction to the core...
Ikeda Center for Peace, Learning, and Dialogue
396 Harvard Street, Cambridge, MA 02138
Phone: (617) 491.1090 Fax: (617) 491.1169