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Symposium:
“East/West in Dialogue: Religious Perspective on Global Issues in the
21st Century” Held at Wellesley College, Massachusetts, USA
On October 21, 2008, the Multifaith
Center of Wellesley College, Massachusetts, USA, sponsored a symposium,
“East/West in Dialogue: Religious Perspective on Global Issues in the
21st Century.” This event was co-hosted by the Wellesley College Office
of Religious and Spiritual Life, Education as Transformation Inc., the
Boston Research Center for the 21st Century (the Ikeda Center for
Peace, Learning and Dialogue) and the Institute of Oriental
Philosophy (IOP), to commemorate the opening of the college’s
Multifaith Center.
During the second session, Wellesley College Professor Sharon Elkins
spoke about women and religious traditions, remarking that for women
“God” serves as a source of life force that imparts the strength to
live. IOP Senior Research Fellow Dr. Toshie Kurihara shared her
observations on women as represented in the teachings of Shakyamuni,
the Lotus Sutra and Nichiren. She also spoke about the current global
network and remarkable achievements of SGI (Soka Gakkai International)
women. 
Wellesley College Associate Professor Neelema Bhatt stressed that
Mahatma Gandhi improved the status of women during his struggles for
India's independence and concluded that the nonviolence movement
furthered the liberation of Hindu women.
In session three, Professor Patricia Mische of Antioch University,
Ohio, USA, and IOP Senior Research Fellow Shuichi Yamamoto discussed
how to address global issues from the perspectives of western religions
and that of Buddhism, respectively.
In his closing remarks, Dr. Peter Laurence, executive director of the
Education as Transformation Project at Wellesley College, commented
that sincere dialogue could bridge divisions between people.
The Boston Research Center for the 21st Century Executive Director
Virginia Straus Benson concluded the symposium by stressing the need to
discern if a religion is helpful for empowering women and if it serves
people to become stronger, wiser and more compassionate, referencing
SGI President Daisaku Ikeda's 2008 peace proposal and his call for the
humanization of religion.
 On
the afternoon of October 18,
2008, an overflow crowd gathered at the Boston Research center
(the
Ikeda Center for Peace, Learning and Dialogue) in Cambridge,
Massachusetts, USA, to hear Dr. Yoichi Kawada and Dr. Mary Catherine
Bateson share insights on the topic “Enjoying the Rhythm of Birth and
Death: A Buddhist Perspective.” The event was the last in a series of
three
Boston Research Center for the 21st Century seminars investigating the topic “Understanding
Death,
Appreciating Life,” a focus for this year inspired by a lecture SGI
President Ikeda gave at Harvard University in 1993 on the Buddhist view
of life and death.
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