Core Conviction: On Dialogue and Mutual Understanding

Ikeda Center Core Conviction One

Dialogue and Mutual Understanding are Inseparable, and Needed Now More Than Ever

Dialogue is among the most powerful tools for nonviolent personal and social change. More than a technique, dialogue represents a stance or orientation, evidence of “a humble willingness to learn from others.” Further, it represents a commitment to shared understanding at a time in history when large numbers of people—the powerful and the powerless alike—see the process of globalization as so inevitably fraught with violence and misunderstanding that the only reasonable option is to fight and win, be it in the physical world or in the world of ideas. In the aftermath of 9-11, when many looked to armed conflict for solutions, Daisaku Ikeda came to a different conclusion: “It is my firm conviction that efforts to create new systems to prevent and counter global terrorism will be genuinely effective only when the kind of dialogue that addresses and transforms the human spirit is conducted on a global scale.”