Daisaku Ikeda Quotes

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Daisaku Ikeda

Profession : Writer

Birth : January 2, 1928

A genuinely happy person is one who has rendered others happy.

Daisaku Ikeda

Living here on Earth, we breathe the rhythms of a universe that extends infinitely above us. When resonant harmonies arise between this vast outer cosmos and the inner human cosmos, poetry is born.

Daisaku Ikeda

When human beings live together, conflict is inevitable. War is not.

Daisaku Ikeda

Having lived through the transition from totalitarianism, I am acutely mindful of the need to never take for granted the basic freedoms of thought, expression and belief that democracy brings.

Daisaku Ikeda

Genuine happiness can only be achieved when we transform our way of life from the unthinking pursuit of pleasure to one committed to enriching our inner lives, when we focus on 'being more' rather than simply having more.

Daisaku Ikeda

The reactions of the human heart are not mechanical and predictable but infinitely subtle and delicate.

Daisaku Ikeda

The idea of interdependence is central to Buddhism, which holds that all things come into being through the mutual interactions of various causes and conditions.

Daisaku Ikeda

Dialogue and education for peace can help free our hearts from the impulse toward intolerance and the rejection of others.

Daisaku Ikeda

It is only through such real-life daily struggles and challenges that a genuine sensitivity to human rights can be inculcated. This is a truth that is not limited to school education: it applies to all of us.

Daisaku Ikeda

The gratification of desire is not happiness.

Daisaku Ikeda

Human rights will be a powerful force for the transformation of reality when they are not simply understood as externally defined norms of behavior but are lived as the spontaneous manifestation of internalized values.

Daisaku Ikeda

Divorced from the cosmos, from nature, from society and from each other, we have become fractured and fragmented.

Daisaku Ikeda

But I think we need to remember that democracy everywhere is by its nature incomplete, a work in progress.

Daisaku Ikeda

People need to be made conscious of a very simple reality: we have no choice but to share this planet, this small blue sphere floating in the vast reaches of space, with all of our fellow 'passengers.'

Daisaku Ikeda

Likewise, education can direct people toward good or evil ends. When education is based on a fundamentally distorted worldview, the results are horrific.

Daisaku Ikeda

We are not merely passive pawns of historical forces; nor are we victims of the past. We can shape and direct history.

Daisaku Ikeda

Faced with stress, too many people feel they have nowhere to turn to, that they don't have access to the kind of friendships or communities where they can easily and openly share their problems and worries.

Daisaku Ikeda

No one should be left to suffer alone.

Daisaku Ikeda

The problems of aging present an opportunity to rethink our social and personal lives in order to ensure the dignity and welfare of each individual.

Daisaku Ikeda

But I believe we must not allow feelings of defeat to take root in our hearts.

Daisaku Ikeda