Strengthening Our Connections
April 2006
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SGI President Ikeda's Peace Proposal
SGI President Ikeda has issued annual peace proposals since 1983
[Kumiko Ichikawa]
In his annual Peace Proposal issued on January 26 to commemorate the SGI's anniversary, "A New Era of the People: Forging a Global Network of Robust Individuals," SGI President Daisaku Ikeda offers perspectives on the variety of threats facing our world.
In the 2006 proposal, he stresses the importance of tackling global issues through focusing first on the personal realities of our everyday lives, and of developing a robust character that is able to restrain the impulses that result in alienation and the loss of empathetic capacity. He goes on to identify three crucial aspects to a Buddhist humanism: a gradualist approach, an emphasis on dialogue and a focus on developing personal character or integrity. It is, he affirms, the local actions of engaged, active citizens that offer our best hope to address the global threats to human security and happiness.
He calls for a determined effort to enhance the role of civil society in the workings of international bodies such as the United Nations and stresses the importance of education for sustainable development and education for peace and disarmament. Educational efforts can, he states, encourage a "revolutionary transformation in the way people think about peace, so that it is felt as an immediate and personal reality." He appeals for the reinvigoration of disarmament talks on the Korean Peninsula and urges improved relations between China and Japan as an essential prerequisite for peace in Asia.
