International Academic Symposium on the Philosophy of Daisaku Ikeda
On October 23 and 24, 2021, Soka University (SU) in Tokyo hosted the 11th International Academic Symposium on the Philosophy of Daisaku Ikeda, which was held online, connecting several venues around the world.
The first symposium was held in 2005 at Peking
University, China, with scholars from eleven universities. With each successive
symposium, the scope has expanded, and for this 11th symposium, with the theme
“Coexistence of Humanity and Global Citizen Education,” 52 universities and
research institutions from 10 countries and territories participated and 80
research theses were submitted.
In the context of current dire realities such
as the coronavirus pandemic and climate change, the symposium provided a venue
for participants to explore perspectives that might provide a compass for
humanity.
At the opening ceremony, SU Board of Trustees
Chair Yasunori Tashiro introduced a message from Daisaku Ikeda, the university’s founder, in which
he expressed his belief that “the greatest obstruction to our coexistence is
the inability to believe in human potential. When this distrust is directed to
oneself, it sows feelings of powerlessness and resignation; when directed to
others, it feeds prejudice and division. While distrust by nature breeds
negativity, education, in contrast, essentially emerged from an unshakeable
belief in the limitless potentiality of human life, bringing about an entirely
different perspective.”
Professor Gu Binglin, former president of
Tsinghua University in Beijing, and Dr. N. Radhakrishnan, chairman of the
Indian Council of Gandhian Studies, also offered words of greetings.
Keynote addresses were given by SU President
Yoshihisa Baba, Professor Gao Hong, president of Introduction of Chinese
Association for Japanese Studies, and Dr. Jason Goulah, director of the
Institute for Daisaku Ikeda Studies in Education at DePaul University.
In his address titled, “Daisaku Ikeda and
Global Citizenship for Creative Coexistence,” Dr. Goulah spoke about how Mr. Ikeda’s approach to global
citizenship has evolved and expanded over the past 70 years, adapting to the
times and the urgencies of humanity. “Not only do we see him expanding his
scope of global citizenship while continuing to consider issues of race and
identity. We also see a focused attention on cultivating wisdom, courage, and
compassion. This suggests that, for Ikeda, by persistently cultivating these qualities with dialogue as
our loadstar, and age of creative coexistence is always possible, especially
with young people at the forefront.”
He concluded saying that whatever the issues
we may confront, “Ikeda
encourages us to imagine a possibility in the given, to find meaning in these
uncomfortable circumstances, and to create value through enhanced wisdom,
courage, and compassion and, thereby, to know others and ourselves and become
fully human.”
Participants then split into eleven breakout
sessions on various themes for presentations and discussions that took place over
the two days.
Commemorative photo-taking during the symposium with researchers, Soka University staff and online participants
[Adapted from
an article in the October 25, 2021, issue of theSeikyo
Shimbun, Soka Gakkai, Japan]
