Ikeda Forum Archives

2022 Ikeda Forum
Our Stories Matter: Dialogue As a Way of Knowing, Being, and Becoming
The first in-person Ikeda Forum since 2019, and the 18th overall since 2004, featured co-presenters Shirley Tang and Karen Ross, both of the University of Massachusetts Boston, exploring the ways “we are storied into being.”
Read »

2021 Ikeda Forum
Becoming Wide Awake to Our Wisdom, Courage, and Compassion
The second “virtual” Ikeda Forum for Intercultural Dialogue explored Daisaku Ikeda conception of global citizenship, which advocates for each individual developing their inherent wisdom, courage, and compassion. The main presentation was from Dr. Awad Ibrahim of the University of Ottawa.
Read »

2020 Ikeda Forum
Value Creation: Our Unlimited Power to Face Overwhelming Challenges
The first ever “virtual” Ikeda Forum for Intercultural Dialogue demonstrated the very concept it explored: value creation. More than 300 global citizens from 27 countries joined via Zoom, as five panelists explored the many ways the value creating perspective improves life for ourselves and others.
Read »

2019 Ikeda Forum
Can Dialogue Save the World? Exploring the Power of Human Connections
The 2019 Ikeda Forum was the end result of a several-month-long experiment in intergenerational dialogue. Six Boston-area young professionals reported on what they learned through the process of engaging in sustained dialogue with four scholar-friends of the Ikeda Center.
Read »

2018 Ikeda Forum
How Do We Practice Human Rights? A Dialogue on Dignity and Justice in Daily Life
After a break in 2017, the annual Ikeda Forum resumed in 2018 to explore the topic of human rights. Scholars Catia Confortini, Jason Goulah, and Elora Chowdhury investigated what we really mean when we talk about human rights and how to take actions in support of human rights in daily life.
Read »

2016 Ikeda Forum
Crisis or Opportunity: A Dialogue on Democracy, Inclusion, Community
For the 2016 Ikeda Forum, Ceasar McDowell of MIT lead the gathering in an investigation of ways we can bridge the seemingly unbridgeable expanses that divide us. For dialogue to succeed, he said, we need to create spaces that enable deeper truth to emerge.
Read »

2015 Ikeda Forum
The Practice of Dignity: What It Looks Like Today
The 2015 Ikeda Forum was called “The Practice of Dignity: What It Looks Like Today.” Meenakshi Chhabra considered dialogue and dignity, Gail Thomas offered a personal call to action, and Peter Stearns looked at dignity in relation to US foreign policy.
Read »

2014 Ikeda Forum
Dignity of Life: The Heart of Human Rights and Peace Building
The 2014 Ikeda Forum was called “Dignity of Life: The Heart of Human Rights and Peace Building.” Charlie Clements, Mari Fitzduff, and Andrea Bartoli shared insights from their respective experiences as human rights and conflict resolution scholars and activists.
Read »

2013 Ikeda Forum
We the People: Who Are We and What Is Our Work?
At the urging of featured speaker Vincent Harding, the tenth annual Ikeda Forum for Intercultural Dialogue became not just a forum devoted to dialogue but also a laboratory devoted to the cultivation of dreams—dreams of freedom and democracy to be precise.
Read more

2012 Ikeda Forum
Awakening Our Connections: A Dialogue on Interdependence
The 2012 Ikeda Forum examined interdependence, expanding beyond its roots as the Buddhist concept of dependent origination, and highlighting its contemporary personal, social, and cross-cultural implications.
Read more

2011 Ikeda Forum
Cultivating the Greater Self
“The greater self of Mahayana Buddhism,” writes Center founder Daisaku Ikeda, “is another way of expressing the openness and expansiveness of character that embraces the sufferings of all people as one’s own.” This quote inspired the seminar’s discussion.
Read More

2010 Ikeda Forum
This Noble Experiment: Developing the Democratic Spirit
On Saturday, November 6, just a few days after the midterm elections, a capacity crowd gathered at the Ikeda Center to consider how we might further develop the democratic spirit, a process and goal at once more subtle and ambitious than the casting of ballots.
Read More

2009 Ikeda Forum
John Dewey, Daisaku Ikeda, and the Quest for a New Humanism
This forum featured original insights into ways that the principles of pragmatism (as articulated by John Dewey) and Mahayana Buddhism (as articulated by Daisaku Ikeda) can point us toward humanistic solutions for the problems of the 21st century.
Read More

2008 Ikeda Forum
Living With Mortality: How Our Experiences With Death Change Us
The 5th Annual Ikeda Forum took a new look at the cycles of life and death. Panelists considered Daisaku Ikeda’s challenge to “establish a culture based on an understanding of the relationship of life and death and of life’s essential eternity.”
Read More

2007 Ikeda Forum
Women and the Power of Friendship
Daisaku Ikeda, like the Buddha, has an unconditional regard for friendship and a fundamental trust in people. Working from this premise, the 2007 Forum explored the dynamics of friendship and social change as experienced by women, past and present.
Read More

2006 Ikeda Forum
Emerson and the Power of Imagination
What can we learn from the thought of Ralph Waldo Emerson about how to live in the world today? How might the imagination help us to envision—and realize—the possibilities for our country? These are two of the questions considered during the 2006 Forum.
Read More

2005 Ikeda Forum
‘Talking Back’ to Whitman: Poetry Matters
On October 1, 2005, the Center held the 2nd annual Ikeda Forum for Intercultural Dialogue. In commemoration of the 150th anniversary of Whitman’s masterpiece, Leaves of Grass, scholars and poets from Asia and the Americas gathered to listen, learn, and respond to Whitman’s poetic vision.
Read More

2004 Ikeda Forum
Reawakening East-West Connections: Walden and Beyond
Inspired by Thoreau’s Walden: A Life in the Woods, the first Ikeda Forum focused on two questions: How can we awaken to all the possibilities that lie within the present moment? How can a profound transformation in just one person lead to social change?
Read More