by Mitch Bogen
Special to the Tribune
Responding to a surge of interest among young people over the last year relating to the need for self-love and self-care, the Aug. 13 Ikeda Center Dialogue Nights—called “A Conversation on Self-Love: What We Need Now”—embraced the topic as one worthy of investigation.
The joyous response from the 38 college students and young professionals from five countries attending on Zoom showed that people found the topic truly inspiring.
The evening centered on presentations from Ikeda Center youth committee members Anna Lane and Archish Mittal, who investigated their own practice of self-love in preparation for Dialogue Nights.
Speaking first, Ms. Lane said she gained tremendous inspiration from a quote from Ikeda Center founder Daisaku Ikeda’s 2021 peace proposal. In it, he wrote that Buddhism “urges us not to extinguish or suppress our feelings of cherishing ourselves above all else.”[1] She agreed with Mr. Ikeda that this is the basis for opening ourselves up to others.
During his experiment with self-love, Mr. Mittal said he noted three main barriers he had been constructing: comparing himself with others, beating himself up for past mistakes and worrying too much about the future. His solution? To learn to always follow his heart.
Following these presentations, participants engaged in small group dialogues. Among the insights offered were that this requires “intention and practice” and that we should take “comfort in realizing that a lot of other people feel this way, and we are working together on this journey to really believe in ourselves.”
The center launched Dialogue Nights in September 2017 to provide a space for young people to engage in meaningful conversations and form genuine connections. Inspired by Daisaku Ikeda’s belief in the infinite potential of youth to be agents of change in their local communities, Dialogue Nights aims to bring hope to young people through the transformative power of dialogue.
—Visit ikedacenter.org for in-depth coverage of the event.
References
- 2021 peace proposal “Value Creation in a Time of Crisis,” https://www.daisakuikeda.org/assets/files/peaceproposal2021.pdf <accessed on Aug. 24, 2021>. ↩︎
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