|
|
Daisaku Ikeda - President of Soka Gakkai
International
|
|
Daisaku Ikeda is the president of the Soka Gakkai International (SGI), a Buddhist association of more than 12 million members in 191 countries and territories.
On May 3, 1960, Ikeda succeeded Josei Toda as third president of the Soka Gakkai, a position he held until 1979.
In 1975 he became the first president of the SGI, an umbrella body for the independent constituent Soka Gakkai organizations in each country.
|
Dr. Ikeda has worked to spread the peaceful and compassionate teachings of Buddhism throughout the world for sixty years of practicing Nichiren Buddhism, and over forty five years of worldwide leadership of
SGI.
A peace activist, Dr. Ikeda has traveled to more than fifty countries meeting and holding dialogue with people, including political and intellectual leaders, with absolute conviction that international understanding and the realization of peace begins with people-to-people dialogue.
For his tireless and unflagging efforts for world peace, he was conferred the United Nations Peace Award in 1983.
|
|
|
He is a prolific writer and a poet, and recognized as one of the leading interpreters of Buddhism, bringing its timeless wisdom to bear on the many contemporary issues confronting humanity.
Dr. Ikeda has founded several institutions including Soka University in Japan and USA, Soka schools from kindergarten to high school levels, the Min-On Concert Association, Institute of Oriental Philosophy, the Tokyo Fuji Art Museum, Toda Institute for Global Peace and Policy Research, the Victor Hugo House of Literature and the Boston Research Center for the 21st Century.
He has submitted peace proposals to the United Nations every year since 1983, with the aim of finding creative solutions to the world’s problems like disarmament, human rights and the environment.
Dr. Ikeda has received over 165 awards and honorary degrees from institutions and universities around the world.
|
In India, he has been the recipient of honorary doctorates from the University of Delhi, Rabindra Bharati University, Himachal Pradesh University, Bharathidasan University among several others.
He has written more than two hundred books, including Global
Civilisation: A Buddhist Islamic Dialogue with Dr Majid Tehranian; Choose Life: A Dialogue with Dr Arnold J.
Toynbee, Choose Hope with David Krieger and A Lifelong Quest for Peace with Dr Linus
Pauling.
|
|
|
|
