Ikeda Center Banner
In This Issue
The Greater Self
Vincent Harding Videos
2011 Peace Proposal

March 2011
 E-Newsletter

The Ikeda Center e-newsletter is designed to keep you up to date with our activities in support of peace, learning, and dialogue.  

Quick Links

Print Newsletter Archive

Dialogue Path Press on Facebook!

Facebook





Cultivating the Greater Self
 

Introducing the Center's focus for 2011

 

Magnolias in Spring

Our vision for this year's theme is inspired by the Mahayana Buddhist concept of the "greater self," i.e., the self that transcends narrow self-interest to manifest compassionate and empathetic concern for the well being of all persons and the planet that sustains us. Please join us during the coming months as we explore the personal, social, and cross-cultural resonances of the greater self. As always, we will raise and enlarge our understanding by engaging in what Center founder Daisaku Ikeda calls "the dialogue of spiritual openness."

 

 

>> Read an introduction to "Cultivating the Greater Self"

 

>> Read articles and essays about the greater self.

 

icon

"The Work of Humankind Has Just Begun"

New Vincent Harding video clips posted 


Vincent Harding at Ikeda Forum

Last November, historian of social transformation Vincent Harding sat down with the Center to record a series of video conversations on the myriad dimensions of the democratic spirit. The final two installments feature Dr. Harding 1) talking about the centrality of love in struggles for social transformation and 2) exploring a quote from the late poet, playwright, and politician Aime Cesaire: "The work of humankind has just begun." Throughout, Dr. Harding reflects on his experience working alongside Martin Luther King, Jr., and countless unsung heroes in the effort to expand freedom and democracy in 1950s and 60s America.

 

>> View Installment 3: Love & the Struggle for Social Transformation

 

>> View Installment 4: "The Work of Humankind Has Just Begun"

 

icon

2011 Peace Proposal

"Toward a World of Dignity for All: The Triumph of the Creative Life" 


Daisaku Ikeda Portrait

Each January, Daisaku Ikeda submits a peace proposal to the United Nations. Comprehensive in scope, the proposals address both the philosophies and the policies needed to realize true global flourishing. In the 2011 proposal, Ikeda points to a lack of political leadership in the face of dire global threats, including widespread poverty and accelerating climate change. Because of this failure, Ikeda argues that "civil society should step in to fill the gap, providing the energy and vision needed to move the world in a new and better direction. I believe that we need a paradigm shift, a recognition that the essence of leadership is found in ordinary individuals -- whoever and wherever they may be -- fulfilling the role that is theirs alone to play."


>> Read an excerpt from the 2011 Peace Proposal to the United Nations  

 

 


Contact Information
Ikeda Center for Peace, Learning, and Dialogue
 396 Harvard Street * Cambridge, MA 02138

phone 617-491-1090 * www.ikedacenter.org