2024 Ikeda Forum: “Imagining a World Where Peace Is Possible”

When the United Nations describes its peacebuilding goals it often speaks of the transition from a culture of violence to a culture of peace. But, really, this macro-level peace culture is made up of many smaller cultures of peace, each realizing harmony and coexistence in unique ways. During the 2024 Ikeda Forum for Intercultural Dialogue, the event’s three featured speakers each discussed how they pursue peacebuilding work in their respective fields of endeavor. 

Lauren Leigh Kelly shared insights from her experience as a public school and university educator, including as Associate Professor in the Graduate School of Education at Rutgers University. She is also the founder of the Hip Hop Youth Research and Activism Conference. Eben Weitzman offered wisdom drawn from his long career as a social and organizational psychologist specializing in the resolution of conflict. Among his past and current positions, he was the founding Chair of the Department of Conflict Resolution, Human Security, and Global Governance at the University of Massachusetts Boston. And Emma Pike discussed what she has learned as an advocate for nuclear disarmament and the strengthening of international law. She currently works for these goals as an associate at Lex International and as a public educator. Also featured were performances from musicians Díjí Kay and Jeremiah Cossa and spoken word artist Lyrical Faith.

Nearly 90 Boston-area residents were in attendance for the gathering, called “Imagining a World Where Peace Is Possible: Engaging Daisaku Ikeda’s Ideas on Dialogue, Youth Empowerment & Nuclear Disarmament.” It was the 20th Ikeda Forum since the program’s inception in 2004. 

Offering welcoming remarks, Ikeda Center Executive Director Kevin Maher began by extending his gratitude to the three speakers, saying “it has been a true pleasure and joy to plan this forum alongside you, and our discussions leading up to today have filled us with energy and hope.” He also expressed “our heartfelt gratitude to all of you in attendance—your participation here today speaks to the urgent need for this dialogue.” Of the Forum itself, Maher noted that its purpose has remained constant for two decades now. “Since its inception,” he said, “we have explored a wide-range of topics related to intercultural dialogue, Buddhist humanism, and global citizenship. Through each forum we have attempted to highlight our common humanity and the necessity of collaborative responses to the challenges we face.” 

This year’s edition was especially significant, Maher added, as November marks one year since the passing of Daisaku Ikeda, founder of the Center and inspiration for the Forum. Referencing the thoughts recorded in Mr. Ikeda’s annual peace proposals, Maher said that he

advocated for a new paradigm of security that prioritizes human well-being over military might. Connected with this, he consistently emphasized nuclear disarmament as a crucial step toward fostering human security, asserting that nuclear weapons represent the pinnacle of humanity’s capacity for destruction and a profound failure to embrace dialogue and understanding, emphasizing the urgent need for disarmament to secure a peaceful future for all.

And quoting from the 2014 peace proposal, Maher concluded by presenting Mr. Ikeda’s vision for a world in which peace truly is possible.

The power of hope that is available to any person, under any circumstance, and which can inspire future generations—this is the foundation of the effort to create value. I believe that this will surely provide a platform on which we can unite our strengths to confront the serious threats and problems facing humanity. This in turn will become a bridge toward the creation of a society where all people can enjoy peace and harmonious coexistence.

Where Peace Is Possible: Three Visions

Before moving to the main program, Ikeda Center Outreach Manager Anri Khare led a grounding activity focusing on breathing and the release of worries to make sure everyone would be centered for the day’s presentations and discussions, an essential activity given all the tension surrounding the election, which would be occurring in just a few days. She then turned the floor over to Senior Program Manager Lillian Koizumi, who introduced the day’s program. “Hopefully now our hearts are more open and our dialogue muscles are warmed up,” she said, “and we can enjoy today’s powerful presentations by our wonderful speakers.”

Eben Weitzman: Sitting Down With the Person You Don’t Want To

First to offer remarks was Dr. Weitzman, who is Associate Professor at UMass Boston. In addition, he does organizational development, equity and inclusion, and conflict resolution work with organizations in the public and private sectors, including in education, government, law enforcement, social services, business, and labor, in the US and abroad. Mostly he works with leaders within those organization, so his work is somewhere between the grassroots and global levels. He drew upon this wide-ranging experience to talk about what he sees as the essential aspects of conflict transformation among polarized groups. 

To open, Dr. Weitzman said that when engaging with Mr. Ikeda’s thoughts about dialogue, peace building, and imagination prior to the event, one quote in particular stood out for him. “I wish to say,” wrote Ikeda, “the world is yours to change. Your dreams, your hopes and aspirations. These will create the future. They are the future. The future already exists in the hearts and minds of the young.” When he says this, said Weitzman, he is “speaking from a very spiritual place.” Yet there is a “cold, hard practical side to this as well,” since young people are the ones “building the world that we live in.” He then reflected on Ikeda’s description of the Japanese word for hope, which is “written with two Chinese characters, one meaning to desire something deeply and intensely, and the other meaning to gaze far into the distance in the future.” And this brought Weitzman to a crucial point. If we accept that hope is this central, then “it matters a great deal what we hope for.” So “if we hope for success or fulfillment without regard to the costs for others, if we hope for domination, for vengeance, for retribution, we’re going to shape a world in which we all seek that kind of satisfaction.” If this describes the world as we know it, we should also understand that we can imagine a world “we maybe haven’t seen yet.”

Currently, we find ourselves in a “political context” that is highly polarized, he said, with many people seeing those they are at odds with as “implacable foes,” which makes it hard to “imagine a way out of it.” From his experience, said Weitzman, he believes that “getting into true dialogue with people with whom you fundamentally differ is maybe the only path to really moving forward” in a productive way. Given this, he added, it is significant that in his essay Mr. Ikeda emphasized this famous quote from Martin Luther King, Jr.: “We’re all caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied into a single garment of destiny, we are made to live together.” Here Ikeda made an association with the Buddhist concept of dependent origination, saying: 

However tenuous our connections may appear on the surface, this does not change the fact that the world is woven of the profound bonds and connections of one life to another. It is this that makes it at all times possible for us to take the kind of action that will generate ripples of positive impact across the full spectrum of our connections. 

To conclude, Dr. Weitzman offered a series of snapshots from his work that revealed how, in far-flung locations and diverse contexts, it is sitting down to talk with the person you don’t want to that makes the difference. The first example was from his experience working with a USAID-funded “tolerance project” in Nigeria, specifically with the Interfaith Mediation Center there, which is led by Pastor James Ouye and Imam Mohammed Ashafa, two “incredibly charismatic preachers who, for a long time, used that power to motivate their followers toward violence towards each other.” But, finally, they literally just sat down together for a long talk and ended up having a “really transformative experience.” Now “they’re like brothers,” promoting dialogue among young people, “pushing the idea that we really have to get to know one another to build peace.”

He also works with the Bridges Project in Boston, which “brings together leaders of federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies with leaders of the local Muslim and Sikh communities.” The purpose is to make sure that, post-9-11, in the event of horrible incidents of violence, for example like the Boston Marathon bombing, law enforcement can be involved in minimizing “any kind of Islamophobic backlash if in fact the perpetrators did turn out to be Muslim.” Weitzman’s third snapshot presented his work with a peace and dialogue group in Israel-Palestine that is built around having Jewish and Arab youth playing Ultimate Frisbee as a way for them to build understanding and community. Because the sport is self-refereed they have built a culture of “constructive, respectful negotiation” among participants. 

Finally, he presented his work with colleagues from Kumamoto University in Japan who work with communities that have faced environmental catastrophe, for example, Fukushima. They work with them to tell their stories and find solutions to the challenges they are facing. Then, to conclude he said that what these experiences have shown him, most of all, is that to build “understanding across groups, understanding between people has to be built in. And that can only really happen if we’re willing to have dialogue with the people we’re having the most trouble with. I think that that’s really fundamental.”

Lauren Leigh Kelly: Where Dreams and Action Meet

Introducing Dr. Kelly, Koizumi recalled how “we first met [her] at the American Educational Research Association conference in 2021 in San Diego. We went up to her after one of the sessions and immediately we were struck by her warmth, joy, and compassion.” Since then, added Koizumi, “we’ve had the great fortune of deepening our friendship with Dr. Kelly and have continued to learn so much from her.” Her presentation reflected her efforts in the fields of critical literacy, Black feminist theory, hip hop pedagogy, youth critical consciousness, and the cultivation of youth agency and activism towards the imagining and building of our collective social futures. Throughout, she shared episodes from her own development as a young person to personalize what she has learned about the building of diverse cultures of peace, including how to think creatively about what peacebuilding looks like in everyday life.

To open, Dr. Kelly said, “I love that we’re talking about imagination” and that “we’re talking about youth work, because this is my world. This is what I think about all the time; what drives me and pushes me.” At the core of her work is pursuing “multiple approaches” to literacy and community. In other words, “not just reading books, but reading ourselves and each other as a text. Reading the world and engaging with it.” For her, this especially includes hip hop, “not just as a form of music, but also as a community, as a culture, as a language, as a form of art, all of these things.” So, her work has two dimensions, then: How we can we activate our identities and our multiple forms of literacy to build community? And how do we build these communities toward social change?

Among the most formative experiences for Dr. Kelly was engaging in “a sort of cultural exchange with my friends through music. We were trading tapes … and trading our stories and our understandings of lyrics, and debating about: Did they say this? Did they say this? So all this is a form of literacy and community participation, right? That was a part of my critical development.” She also was inspired by her experience with teen clubs, young people’s places for dancing and socializing. Here, Kelly spoke of the power of imagination. Recalling how much these clubs inspired her, she said:

If I saw abandoned structures, I was immediately imagining how I was going to flip this structure into my teen club. So I’m like, all right, it’s gonna be multiple rooms. This is gonna be like the House music room. This is, you know, the hip hop room, which should be the bigger room, which at the time was always the smallest one. So I wanted to flip that. So I’m thinking about the structures as they exist, imagining how I want to transform them.

She also participated in a high school organization called Key Club, a community service organization for youth, again thinking of ways to have a transformative impact. First, she wrote about the Club for the student paper, attracting people that way. Then she launched new activities like a “wake-a-thon where we would have a sleepover in the gym and watch movies and dance and hang out to raise money in order to fund community efforts.” And, most crucially, perhaps, she helped expand the membership beyond it’s “mostly white” identity and contributed to developing a more social justice orientation. “So we changed the face of what it meant and looked like in our high school and our community to be in Key Club.”

Dr. Kelly carried the same spirit into her professional life as an educator and scholar. Among her most rewarding experiences as a high school teacher was teaching a spoken word poetry class, which “was transformative for me and my students.” Truthfully, she said, we didn’t “really know how to do” something like this, so they decided to “figure this out together.” In the process, they became “like family.” A big step for them was to go together to the Bowery Poetry Club in New York City, often to hear the Nuyorican poets group, which was part of the Puerto Rican arts movement in the city. Inspired by this, she and the students worked to create a spoken word scene in their community in Long Island, sponsoring an open mic night at a local shop. When this really started succeeding, she saw “all these things coming together, right? The power and possibilities of activating your literacy’s creativity and community to create something. This thing didn’t exist, this community didn’t exist, until they made it. This is how young people can dream together and build.”

Moving on to the topic of the dreams of youth, she shared an anecdote about an encounter that was eye opening for her. In dialogue with a group of youth, maybe 20 or 21 years of age, Dr. Kelly was surprised when one student said his dream was a good job, a nice suit, a nice car, and a house and family to go home to. Her surprise was because she had been thinking about dreams as they pertain to global issues, but soon realized that yes, people need and want to imagine a future you are “healthy” and “safe” in. This means that one of her goals as an educator is to help young people keep dreaming beyond that. “Yes, of course, we need to imagine ourselves alive and finding joy and finding peace and comfort,” she said. “And we also need to push beyond that and imagine that we can build towards peace and justice.” And also: to come to know “that there’s something more for us than fitting in” to what society tells us we should be aspiring to. In a society that is so geared to the profit motive, educators can help young people imagine what it “really means to be free.” Speaking personally, she said that a big part of her own evolution in this regard came from listening to hip hop groups like Black Star, De La Soul, and Tribe Called Quest. Citing the words of Robin D. G. Kelly, she said they were “modern ancients, redefining freedom, imagining a communal future and present without exploitation.” To close, she also quoted Gloria Anzaldúa, who said that “nothing happens in the real world unless it first happens in the images in our heads.”

Emma Pike: Everything Comes Down To Human Relations

“Finally,” said Koizumi, “I’m so happy to introduce another dear friend of the Center, Emma Pike, who is a nuclear disarmament activist, peace educator, and specialist in global citizenship education.” Saying she was “delighted and honored to share this space” with everyone, Pike said that in her disarmament work with Lex International, one of their main tasks is “shifting the narrative around nuclear weapons away from one of deterrence,” which holds that nuclear weapons “somehow bring stability or prevent conflict or … that nuclear weapons are so terrible that they will never be used.” One of the ways they do this, she said, was articulated by Mr. Ikeda in his 2019 peace proposal when he stated that we need a “people-centered approach” to the issue. One passage from the proposal stood out especially for Pike:

If we are to truly put an end to the era of nuclear weapons, we must struggle against the real enemy, which is neither nuclear weapons per se, nor the states that possess or develop them, but rather the ways of thinking that permit the existence of such weapons, the readiness to annihilate others when they’re perceived as a threat or hindrance to the realization of our objectives. 

This orientation “really underlies” all of her work in this field, said Pike. It is because we too often think only of our own security that makes disarmament a “human problem” in need of a “human solution.”

In terms of imagining a world where peace is possible, said Pike, it is crucial that we emphasize our interdependence and the truth that “our individual security relies on our collective security.” In terms of her disarmament work, she said that we have already seen great progress toward a more peaceful world, demonstrating Ikeda’s conviction that “humanity possesses the power of solidarity, a strength with which we can overcome any adversity.” Indeed, continued Ikeda, “the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, the TPNW, an undertaking whose achievement was long considered impossible, was adopted two years ago [in 2017], through the power of solidarity, and movement is progressing toward ratification and entry into force.” This was written in 2019, said Pike, and it has “entered into force” as of January 22, 2021. So it is now part of international law, she said. This success truly demonstrates “the solidarity of ordinary people,” representing “the efforts of people all around the world.” For example, the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, or ICAN, which is a coalition of more than 600 organizations in 110 countries. In the UN, 122 countries voted in favor of this treaty. And “many chose not to vote. I believe it was just two that voted against.” This means “most countries don’t want nuclear weapons,” she said. “That is the reality. Most people, of course, don’t want nuclear weapons because they recognize that this decision by really just a handful of states, just nine countries, to cling to their nuclear weapons is something that poses a security threat to all of us.”

Speaking personally, Pike said the most crucial event in shaping her commitment to disarmament was visiting Hiroshima during the G7 Summit in 2023. In particular, meeting Toshiko Tanaka, “who survived the atomic bombing when she was just six years old,” she said, left me “fully convinced that if every person on earth, maybe even just half of the people on earth could visit Hiroshima, visit the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, which tells the stories of so many people whose lives were just shattered by this bomb and the absolute hell that it created afterwards … I think if everyone could visit that place, nuclear weapons would be abolished in the blink of an eye.” Going there “truly changed the trajectory of my work and my life,” she said. Most transformative of all was speaking with Tanaka, and asking her:

What is it that you most want to tell people? If I could share one message from you, what would you most want to tell people? And she said, you know, I have so many, but the most important thing is that around the world, relationships that are built on trust are disappearing. And what she wanted to convey in particular to young people is to please find and make many, many friends, especially from other countries and other places, who you can deeply trust… . And she said in this age where there is so much mistrust between people, mistrust between countries, nobody knows what they can truly believe. So we live in these bubbles of suspicion, and she said, as this suspicion grows, you know, so does the likelihood of war. 

Reflecting back on this conversation, Pike concluded that “if my work has taught me anything, it is truly that everything comes down to human relations. Our entire world is built on human relations. You know, human relations are what builds international relations between countries. Nothing else.” Then, to conclude she shared the thoughts of Setsuko Thurlow, another “survivor of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, [who has] been such a courageous and tireless campaigner for a world free of nuclear weapons.” During remarks at the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize ceremony, in which ICAN was the award recipient, Thurlow spoke of her experience at Hiroshima, and what she has learned:

When I was a 13-year-old girl trapped in the smoldering rubble, I kept pushing. I kept moving toward the light, and I survived. Our light now is the ban treaty. To all in this hall and all listening around the world, I repeat those words that I heard called to me in the ruins of Hiroshima. Don’t give up. Keep pushing. You see the light, crawl towards it. No matter what obstacles we face, we will keep moving and keep pushing and share this light with others. This is our passion and our commitment for our one precious world to survive.

Highlights From the Panel Discussion

Following the presentations, an interlude of music and poetry displayed the aesthetic dimensions of peacebuilding practices. During their musical performance, flautist Díjí Kay and pianist Jeremiah Cossa created a meditative atmosphere and demonstrated the power of close listening in the creation of true musical communication. During her spoken word performance, Lyrical Faith revealed the dynamic potential of language and how ideas and emotions can be seamlessly joined.

Next, came a panel discussion moderated by Lillian Koizumi, who asked the day’s speakers to consider such questions as: What does peace really mean? How are you thinking about peace (or the absence of peace) in the world right now? In the context of your own work and experience, what do you see as the root causes of violence, war, division, and hate? How do we move forward from here? She also asked them to return to the idea of imagination. How can we continue to cultivate the ability to imagine amid the struggles of our daily lives?
 

Lauren Leigh Kelly on Fear, Belonging, and Peacebuilding

And so I think [about] — and this is not research-based, but observationally — how I understand where conflict comes from, it’s a sense of fear, right? People are afraid, whatever the things are, right? Afraid of losing their money or their land and their independence or whatever it is. And [also] unbelonging. So the folks who I know who seem most okay with violence and most okay with conflict are those who I experience as not feeling like they fit in anywhere. So even holding on to this idea of violence becomes a belonging, becomes a way of fitting in. And so my answer is, well, peace would be belonging, right? Feeling like I do fit into this, the fabric of the society that we’re trying to build. That I am not afraid of losing, that I’m not afraid of someone else having freedom, right? And I think that I don’t know how we solve people not having fear, but I do think that’s where it stems from. That’s what peace looks like. 

Eben Weitzman on Why Groups Polarize

So, thinking about where we are right now, what has been coming up for me a lot lately is … about the dynamics of polarization, group polarization. And so speaking for a minute as a social psychologist, a big part of what happens when polarization is going on, when we’re in fight–flight mode, when we’re within our group, what has the greatest social currency is the most extreme statement. When our group perceives itself to be at war, in a fight with that [other] group, when we’re talking amongst ourselves, the person who has the most social currency is the person who can say the most, you know, the biggest zinger, the thing with the most punch, and everybody goes, oh yeah, she’s got it, he’s got it, that’s right. And that’s how you get leadership, and that’s how you get influence. And this is a dynamic that’s been going on for a long time. This is ancient built-in stuff when we’re in that fight–flight mode. 

Emma Pike on What It Means to Make a Difference

Somebody once opened my eyes to the fact that we always talk about what difference am I going to make? What change am I going to make in the world? [But] just the fact that you exist, just the fact that you are here taking up space, [means] you are making a difference. Whether you like it or not, because you exist, you’re making a difference. And so the question is actually about what kind of difference am I going to make? And I think about it all the time, [how] I have the choice to imagine any future I want, you know, whether it’s the future like this evening or tomorrow or next year or humanity a thousand years from now. So there’s something about that agency that I find very … empowering. I don’t know why, but it really, genuinely feels very empowering. 

Q & A, Breakout Dialogues, and Concluding Encouragement

During a brief Q & A session the panelists were able to expand on key themes from the day. On the topic of how one cultivates the habit of positive imagination, Pike said that she finds it easier to fall into despair when she is isolating. This is why she takes Tanaka’s advice to heart, to “find good friends who you can trust.” Weitzman added that engaging in positive imagining is like developing a muscle. There will be setbacks or disappointments, but nevertheless it’s wise to “push forward.” The panelists also responded to a question about how to deal with the “innate lack of trust” that defines the digital age. In her remarks on the topic, Kelly said that when there is an online option, her students will always choose that. “But every time we actually unpack our experiences,” said Kelly, “it’s in the in-person spaces. And they always recall that being the transformative moments for them when they’re most engaged.”

After the Q & A, the Center’s Anri Khare introduced the small group dialogue portion of the event, asking participants to respond to the following prompts.

• What stood out to you from the presentations and dialogue?
• Reflecting on the excerpts on your quote card, what does peace look like for you on a personal and societal level? 
• Throughout Daisaku Ikeda’s peace proposals, he emphasized that peace starts from each of us cultivating seeds of peace in the reality of our everyday lives, from our day-to-day efforts to forge “bonds of friendship and trust in our respective communities.” Can you share any examples of people cultivating seeds of peace in your personal life and/or communities? How can we strengthen and expand these kinds of efforts?

After these discussions, which were facilitated by members of the Ikeda Center youth committee, participants engaged in a “Pledge of Peace” activity in which they were asked to complete the statement: “I will help to co-construct a peaceful world by _________ .” The responses included many insights and inspirations. For example, these participants said they would co-construct a peaceful world by:

• Always choosing love: self-love and love for others. Making the effort to always give dignity before anything else and sustaining my love while waiting hopefully.
• Role-modeling the type of world I want to live in.
• Treating others with respect and realizing that everyone deserves to make mistakes and grow.
• Healing myself [and] facing and integrating the wisdom in my anger.
• Engaging in dialogue with people different than me and trying to see their Buddha nature.

Finally, with only a few minutes left in the afternoon’s program, Weitzman and Kelly suggested two activities to create a reflective and optimistic mindset during and after these last stressful days before the election. First, Dr. Weitzman asked everyone to think about someone in their lives “with whom you see things very differently,” someone with whom in the weeks to come you ”may have difficulty being in community with.” Now take a moment to imagine what constructive dialogue with that person might look like, especially when “approaching it with curiosity and a spirit of inquiry.” Now, “let’s just sit and reflect on that for a minute,” he concluded. Dr. Kelly then invited everyone to take the paper and envelopes being passed around and write and address a letter to themselves. “And the first thing you’re going to write,” she said, “is something that you learned today,” philosophically, historically, psychologically or even something else. The second piece is to write about something “you want to learn more about.” Finally, write down what you want to do to help us move “towards a world where peace is not only possible, but [where] it is.” Then Ikeda Center staff collected all the letters with the plan of mailing them out in the coming weeks. That way, in the very near future everyone would be receiving a timely message of encouragement.