Daisaku Ikeda

I hope that you will always speak the truth boldly, saying what needs to be said no matter whom you're addressing. When it comes to championing a just cause, you must never be cowardly, never fawn, never try to curry favor.

Daisaku Ikeda, 池田大作, Ikeda Daisaku, (2 January 1928 – 15 November 2023) was a Japanese Buddhist philosopher, educator, author, nuclear disarmament advocate, and founding president of Soka Gakkai International (SGI), a Buddhist association which claims 12 million members in more than 190 countries and territories.

Quotes

When we realize that our lives are one with the great and eternal life of the universe, we are the Buddha. The purpose of Buddhism is to enable all people to come to this realization.

• When we realize that our lives are one with the great and eternal life of the universe, we are the Buddha. The purpose of Buddhism is to enable all people to come to this realization.
  • As quoted by Tina Turner in "Absolutely, Indestructibly Happy : An interview with Tina Turner" by Clark Strand, Tricycle (Winter 2020)

Faith into Action (1999)

Faith into Action is a compilation of thoughts on selected topics by Daisaku Ikeda. It is divided into 5 parts: life, faith and practice, leadership, our treasured organization, peace culture and education.

Life

• Buddhism is an earnest struggle to win. This is what the Daishonin teaches. A Buddhist must not be defeated. I hope you will maintain an alert and winning spirit in your work and daily life, taking courageous action and showing triumphant actual proof time and again.

• Life passes by in an instant. In the twinkling of an eye, we grow old. Our physical strength wanes and we began to suffer various aches and pains. We practice Nichiren Daishonin's Buddhism so that instead of sinking into feelings of sadness, loneliness and regret, we can greet old age with inner richness and maturity, as round and complete as the ripe, golden fruit of autumn.

Faith and practice

• Prayer become manifest in action, and action has to be backed up by prayer. Only then can we elicit a response from the Buddhist deities and all Buddhism. Those who pray and take action for kosen-rufu are the Buddha's emissaries. They cannot fail to realize lives in which all desires are fulfilled.

• In the inner realm of life, cause and effect occur simultaneously. What ever the person desire with the passage of time, this causal relationship becomes manifest in the phenomental world of daily life. This is the ultimate law of whole universe.

Leadership

• Leadership is not a matter of ordering people around but of first taking action yourself. By initiating action yourself, you will win others' trust, and they, in turn, will take action.

• After fully hearing out the views of everyone, one should judge things impartially and come to a decision. And once one has done so, one should rise to implement it without vacillation. Please make united efforts that demonstrate responsiveness to others' views.

Our treasured organization

• Significant discussions that foster mutual understanding are much more valuable than the self-complacent pronouncements of one person. Please conduct discussions that deeply penetrate the hearts of the participants — the kind that make them want to say :"That was really refreshing. I have so much hope now. That gave me confidence. I now have the strength to advance."

• I hope that you will always speak the truth boldly, saying what needs to be said no matter whom you're addressing. When it comes to championing a just cause, you must never be cowardly, never fawn, never try to curry favor.

Peace, culture and education

• A great work of art is one that truly moves and inspires you. You yourself must be moved. Don't look at art with others' eyes. Don't listen to music with others' ears. You must react to art with your own feelings, your own heart and mind.

• Peace and culture are one. A genuinely cultured nation is a peaceful nation. and vice versa. When conflicts multiply, culture wanes and nations fall into hellish existences. The history of the human race is a contest between culture and barbarity. As we leave the tensions of the Cold War behind, the pressing question becomes "What will the coming century be like?" Only culture is a force strong enough to end conflict and lead humanity in the direction of peace.

• American philosopher and educator John Dewey (1859-1952) said "Genuine culture stimulates the creative powers of imagination, of mind and of thought. It includes not merely free access to things of the mind and taste already in existence but a positive production of them so that the waters of knowledge and of ideas are kept fresh and vital. Culture is a stimulus. Culture is to produce things of value. Culture enriches life. Culture belongs to the people. (6/15/96)

• Reading literature can greatly enhance the study of science. If science is all one focuses, the mind will grow very mechanical. We are only fully human when we possess not only intelligence but also emotion and sensitivity. Literature is the oil that greases the wheels of the mind.

External links

• Official Daisaku Ikeda website
• Official SGI profile of Daisaku Ikeda
• Official YouTube channel of Daisaku Ikeda's animated stories for children, in several languages
• The Ikeda Center for Peace, Learning, and Dialogue
• Full text of selected lectures by Soka University Founder