Author: Daisaku Ikeda
Published by: Soka Gakkai International
Link: https://www.daisakuikeda.org/sub/resources/works/lect/lect-01.html
Summary:
Ikeda argues that humanity is entering an era where soft power — the ability to inspire, imagine, and persuade through ethical presence and cultural values — will be more essential than military might or coercive strength. Drawing from the Buddhist concept of dependent origination (interdependence), he suggests that lasting peace and sustainable global society depend on our willingness to cultivate imagination, mutual recognition, and dialogue.
Key Concepts:
- Soft power is the power of attraction rather than domination
- The root of peace is inner transformation, not external control
- The most important form of strength is the courage to empathize
- Interdependence (dependent origination) is the ground of all ethics
- True education fosters moral imagination and global citizenship
Why it matters for my work:
- Offers a powerful lineage source for the Mutuality module in Companion Machines
- Reframes design and civic practice as fields of influence through relationship
- Helps ground my understanding of relational ethics in spiritual and philosophical traditions
- Challenges dominant cultural narratives of individualism, performance, and control
- Inspires a vision of cultural work — like writing, caregiving, and design — as political and peacebuilding acts
Relevant to:
- Companion Machines
- Formative Concepts / Glossary → Soft Power
- Nobody’s Job → Chapters on civic design, relational infrastructure
- Future essays on relational ethics, non-coercive systems, care as imagination