University of Glasgow, Scotland, U.K.
June 15, 1994--Honorary Doctorate
Professor Forbes Munro
In the spring of 1971, on a leafy hillside in the Tokyo suburb of Hachioji, a new university, Soka University, opened its doors to a first intake of students. To the casual observer there might have seemed little to distinguish the fledgling institution from other new universities which were emerging in Japan at the time. What marked out Soka University from the rest, however, was the vision and inspiration of its Founder, Daisaku Ikeda . . .
Daisaku Ikeda . . . has devoted himself to the cause of world peace and to supporting the ideals and policies of the United Nations. This endeavor brought recognition in the form of numerous awards from governments and organizations . . . In education too, Mr. Ikeda manifested the same spirit of internationalism. He has traveled widely to lecture at major world universities on the Buddhist perspective on contemporary social, political and environmental issues . . .
. . . I have dwelt rather more on the public than on the private man, and there is much that could be said on the latter. Daisaku Ikeda is a fine scholar, the author of a number of books of philosophical enquiry. He is an amateur photographer of merit, with an eye for landscapes, in particular. And from an early age, he expressed his inner spiritual and emotional self in the quiet art of poetry. I believe a few lines from one of his own poems sum up Daisaku Ikeda far better than any words of mine could achieve:
Like the waterfall fierce
Like the waterfall unflagging
Like the waterfall unfearing
Like the waterfall merrily
Like the waterfall proudly--
A man should have the bearing of a king.
