DIALOGUES

With the unshakable conviction that true peace may only be forged in the hearts and minds of the world’s ordinary citizens, Daisaku Ikeda has engaged in dialogues with the representatives of all realms of human society.

For President Ikeda, faith in human beings is the foundation of dialogue. It is such faith that is the hallmark of his philosophy, and the source of his energetic commitment to peace.

This faith in dialogue is one that President Ikeda has tested and developed over the past four decades in his meetings and discussions with hundreds of individuals–principal figures from around the world in the humanities, politics, economics, science, culture and the arts.

President Ikeda’s efforts to engage in dialogue stem from his faith in the ability of people to cast bridges of friendship and trust across the seeming chasms of our differences and from the conviction that the accumulated weight of such endeavours will tip even the global scales toward peace. Dialogue, he asserts, reaffirms and reinvigorates the shared humanity of those who engage in it. It is in commitment to dialogue that we find the essence and practice of humanism.

One of President Ikeda’s first extensive dialogues was with the late British historian Arnold Toynbee and was first published as Choose Life, in 1979. In this dialogue, the authors not only explore the ageless questions of life but also the most pressing issues of the modern era. Choose Life has since been translated into 28 languages.

“While we share different values, how far can we expand a common ground for all humanity through true dialogue? The important thing is how we can use the power of dialogue to bring the world closer together and raise humanity to a new eminence. In the present highly complex world of overlapping hatreds, contradictory interests, and conflict, even attempting to do such things may seem like an idealism that will only take us in circles. But . . . I am someone who believes that a magnificent and very real challenge as we seek world peace is to allow the civilization of dialogue to flower in the twenty-first century.” — Daisaku Ikeda

Read more: www.daisakuikeda.org

President Ikeda has since carried out discussions with leaders of various fields around the world, many of which have been published. A few of them are:

  • Choose Peace with Johan Galtung (Pluto Press, 1995)
  • Space and Eternal Life with Chandra Wickramasinghe (Journeyman Press, 1998)
  • Choose Hope: Your Role in Waging Peace in the Nuclear Age with David Krieger (Middleway Press, 2002)
  • Global Civilization: A Buddhist-Islamic Dialogue with Majid Tehranian (British Academic Press, 2003)
  • On Being Human: Where Ethics, Medicine, and Spirituality Converge, with René Simard and Guy Bourgeault (Middleway Press, 2003)
  • Planetary Citizenship: Your Values, Beliefs and Actions Can Shape a Sustainable World with Hazel Henderson (Middleway Press, 2004)
  • Revolutions: to Green the Environment, To Grow the Human Heart with M. S. Swaminathan (EastWest Books, [Madras] 2005)
  • Moral Lessons of the Twentieth Century: Gorbachev and Ikeda on Buddhism and Communism with Mikhail Gorbachev (I.B. Tauris, 2005)
  • Choose Life: A Dialogue with Arnold J. Toynbee (Oxford University Press, 1976; I.B. Tauris, 2007)
  • Dawn After Dark with René Huyghe (Weatherhill, 1991; I.B. Tauris, 2007)
  • A Quest for Global Peace: Rotblat and Ikeda on War, Ethics and the Nuclear Threat with Joseph Rotblat (I.B. Tauris, 2007)
  • Human Values in a Changing World: A Dialogue on the Social Role of Religion with Bryan Wilson (Lyle Stuart, 1987; I.B. Tauris, 2008)
  • Search for a New Humanity: A Dialogue with Josef Derbolav (I.B. Tauris, 2008)
  • A Dialogue between East and West — Looking to a Human Revolution with Ricardo Díez-Hochleitner (I.B. Tauris, 2008)
  • A Lifelong Quest for Peace: A Dialogue with Linus Pauling (Jones and Bartlett Publishers, 1992; I.B. Tauris, 2009)
  • A Passage to Peace: Global Solutions from East and West with Nur Yalman (I.B. Tauris, 2009)
  • Ode to the Grand Spirit with Chingiz Aitmatov (I.B. Tauris, 2009)
  • Human Rights in the Twenty-first Century with Austregésilo de Athayde (I.B. Tauris, 2009)
  • Creating Waldens: An East-West Conversation on the American Renaissance with Ronald A. Bosco and Joel Myerson (Dialogue Path Press, 2009)
  • The Persistence of Religion: Comparative Perspectives on Modern Spirituality with Harvey G. Cox (I.B. Tauris, 2009)
  • Buddhism: A Way of Values with Lokesh Chandra (Eternal Ganges Press, 2009)
  • Before It Is Too Late: A Dialogue with Aurelio Peccei (I.B. Tauris, 2009)
  • Into Full Flower: Making Peace Cultures Happen with Elise Boulding (Dialogue Path Press, 2010)
  • New Horizons in Eastern Humanism: Buddhism, Confucianism and the Quest for Global Peace with Tu Weiming (I.B. Tauris, 2011)
  • America Will Be! Conversations on Hope, Freedom and Democracy with Vincent Harding (Dialogue Path Press, 2013)
  • The Inner Philosopher: Conversations on Philosophy’s Transformative Power with Lou Marinoff (Dialogue Path Press, 2012)
  • The Art of True Relations: Conversations on the Poetic Heart of Human Possibility with Sarah Wider (Dialogue Path Press, 2014)
  • Reaching Beyond: Improvisations on Jazz, Buddhism, and a Joyful Life with Herbie Hancock and Wayne Shorter (World Tribune Press in association with Dialogue Path Press, 2017)
  • Living As Learning: John Dewey in the 21st Century with Jim Garrison and Larry Hickman (Dialogue Path Press, 2014)
  • Walking with the Mahatma: Gandhi for Modern Times with Neelakanta Radhakrishnan (Eternal Ganges Press, 2015)