Fifty years ago, on April 1, 1974, Daisaku Ikeda delivered his first overseas lecture, “Toward a Century of Humanity,” at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). This was the first of many lectures he would give at various universities and academic institutions around the world. In this lecture, drawing on the Buddhist concept of the Middle Way that corresponds to the western ideal of the Golden Mean, Ikeda urges humanity to balance desires with spiritual development toward the creation of a genuinely human and harmonious civilization. Ikeda states, “We must align human civilization with the greater self, the eternally abiding reality that underlies the changing phenomenal world, and thereby enable its full and harmonious flourishing. Then and only then will humanity stand on its own and build a civilization that is authentically human.” Read full lecture at: daisakuikeda.org/sub/resourc…