Cabinet 28 , shelves D-F. Description by Gary Cartwright, May 2024.
The SGI (Soka Gakkai International) collection is an extensive – although not exhaustive – selection from the SGI library. The volumes included were mainly authored – or co-authored by the SGI’s third president Daisaku Ikeda, who, as well as tirelessly practising and promoting Nichiren Buddhism, was also a tireless campaigner for world peace until his death on15 November 2023 at the age of 94
Key items in this collection include ‘Choose Life (1975)’, documenting Ikeda’s dialogues with the renowned British Historian Arnold Toynbee which took place over a period of four years, along with Ikeda’s published dialogue’s with renowned world leaders such as Soviet Premiere Mikhail Gorbachev (1985 – 1991), and leading religious figures including Islamic scholar Majid Tehranian (1937 – 2012). Another key volume is ‘A Forum for Peace’ (Olivier Urbaine, ed.), being a collection of Ikeda’s peace proposals to the United Nations from 1983 to 2022.
From a more purely Buddhist perspective 25 volumes of Daisaku Ikeda’s 30 volume novel ‘The Human Revolution’ highlighting the history of the SGI from his inauguration in 1960 as President are included, along with his ‘Youthful Diary’ documenting Ikeda’s struggles as a young man, for Buddhism and world peace, whilst supporting his mentor, second Soka Gakkai Josei Toda (1951 -1958). Other books in the collection by Ikeda include titles offering practical advice for Buddhist practitioners, as well as analyses and exegesis of key Buddhist texts.
Works by authors other than Daisku Ikeda include a sociological overview of Nichiren Buddhism in Wales by Jeaneane and Merv Fowler.