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Sgi Day Summary

SGI Day is celebrated annually on January 26 to commemorate the founding of Soka Gakkai International (SGI) in 1975 at the First World Peace Conference in Guam. SGI was established to promote peace and understanding across cultures, with Daisaku Ikeda emphasizing the importance of altruism and respect for life in his inaugural speech. Today, SGI has approximately 2.2 million members in 192 countries, dedicated to addressing societal issues through the principles of Nichiren Daishonin's Buddhism.

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128 views1 page

Sgi Day Summary

SGI Day is celebrated annually on January 26 to commemorate the founding of Soka Gakkai International (SGI) in 1975 at the First World Peace Conference in Guam. SGI was established to promote peace and understanding across cultures, with Daisaku Ikeda emphasizing the importance of altruism and respect for life in his inaugural speech. Today, SGI has approximately 2.2 million members in 192 countries, dedicated to addressing societal issues through the principles of Nichiren Daishonin's Buddhism.

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settykaira.fd
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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January 26: SGI Day

It was on January 26, 1975, that the Soka


Gakkai International (SGI) was
inaugurated at the First World Peace
Conference on the island of Guam—the
site of fierce fighting between American
and Japanese military forces and of
countless deaths of innocent civilians
during World War II.
The SGI was founded as a global
Daisaku Ikeda at the founding of the SGI in Guam
association to link independent Soka
Gakkai constituent organizations around the world and support the faith and
Buddhist practice of an increasing international membership. It was then Soka
Gakkai President Daisaku Ikeda’s vision to make Guam the symbolic starting
point for this movement—a network of individuals committed to promoting
understanding between cultures and actualizing peace.
Some 158 representatives from 51 countries and territories attended the meeting,
which is now celebrated annually as SGI Day, and at their request, Daisaku Ikeda
took up the position of president of the newly-formed SGI.
In his speech on that occasion, Ikeda stressed that Buddhism is grounded in the
philosophy of respect for the dignity of life and made a powerful declaration
stating that he would dedicate his life to the endeavor of promoting a lasting
peace. He also encouraged the members to live altruistically: “Rather than
seeking to bring your own lives to bloom, devote yourselves to planting the seeds
of peace throughout the world.”
There are now members in 192 countries and territories, with 90 independent local
constituent organizations and a total membership of around 2.2 million members
outside Japan. Each local organization develops its activities in respectful
accordance with the culture and characteristics of that society, based on an
understanding of the links between individual happiness and the peace and
development of all humanity.
The SGI Charter, adopted in 1995, clarifies that the mission of the SGI is to
respond to current problems in society and the world based on the philosophy of
Buddhism:
“We, the constituent organizations and members of the Soka Gakkai International,
embrace the fundamental aim and mission of contributing to peace, culture and
education based on the philosophy and ideals of the Buddhism of Nichiren
Daishonin... We believe that Nichiren Daishonin’s Buddhism, a humanistic
philosophy of infinite respect for the sanctity of life and all-encompassing
compassion, enables individuals to cultivate and bring forth their inherent wisdom
and, nurturing the creativity of the human spirit, to surmount the difficulties and
crises facing humankind and realize a society of peaceful and prosperous
coexistence.”
In reference to the inaugural meeting on Guam, Ikeda states, “Since that first
gathering, the members of the SGI have consistently upheld the conviction that
dialogue represents the sure and certain path to peace.”
In this spirit, on January 26 every year since 1983, in commemoration of SGI Day,
Ikeda has authored peace proposals exploring the interrelation between core
Buddhist concepts and the diverse challenges global society faces in the quest to
realize peace and human security.

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