1.

Introduction

Creative people are all around the world. No matter how intelligent or how rich you are, you are not necessarily a creative person. Creative people have their own unique way of thinking and principles, which make them different from the others. Here I would like to introduce an example of a creative person --- Daisaku Ikeda. 2.0 Contributions of Daisaku Ikeda

Daisaku Ikeda is a Buddhist philosopher, an educator and a prolific writer and poet. As the founder of Soka Gakkai International (SGI) lay Buddhist movement, he has devoted himself to wide-ranging efforts for peace and individual empowerment, and has founded cultural, educational and peace research institutions around the world. These include the Institute of Oriental Philosophy (1962), the Min-On Concert Association (1963), the Tokyo Fuji Art Museum (1983), the Ikeda Center for Peace, Learning, and Dialogue (formerly, the Boston Research Center for the 21st Century, 1993) and the Toda Institute for Global Peace and Policy Research (1996). Born in Tokyo in 1928, Ikeda experienced firsthand the tragic reality of war and militarism. In the chaos of post-war Japan, he came to embrace Buddhism through an encounter with the educator and pacifist Josei Toda, head of the Buddhist lay organization Soka Gakkai, who had been imprisoned for his beliefs during World War II. These experiences shaped Ikeda's commitment to peace. Over the years, Ikeda has engaged in dialogue with many of the world's leading thinkers and leaders in search of viable responses to global problems, inspired the SGI's support of United Nations activities and written extensively on a range of issues related to peace and the human condition. For example, on the 26th January of every year, Ikeda will propose a peace proposal to reflect the issues and crises faced by the world now and also propose solutions for these problems. In his peace proposal year 2010, he mentioned about the main causes of social problems and their effects to the world, including the economy crisis, the misuse of technology and nuclear weapons and the importance of work, woman and children to the society. Both Toda and his mentor, Makiguchi, had been educators working to implement Makiguchi's theory of value-creating pedagogy, and one of Ikeda's initiatives was to establish a system of schools that would give physical form to the ideals of his predecessors. Junior and Senior Soka High Schools were founded in Tokyo in 1968, followed by the 1

establishment of Soka University in 1971 and Soka University of America in 2001. The establishment of these schools, which are open to all students and offer no religious instruction, was the first major step in an ongoing endeavor to develop a humanistic educational system, one that Ikeda has described as the culminating undertaking of his life. Central to Ikeda's thinking is the idea that a self-directed transformation within the life of each individual, rather than societal or structural reform alone holds the key to lasting peace and human happiness. This is expressed most succinctly in a passage in his best-known work, The Human Revolution: "A great human revolution in just a single individual will help achieve a change in the destiny of a nation and, further, will enable a change in the destiny of all humankind." Ikeda's books, offering perspectives grounded in Buddhist humanism on the challenges facing both individuals in their daily lives and humanity as a whole, have been translated and published in more than 30 languages.

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What makes Daisaku Ikeda a Creative Person

The reason why I think Daisaku Ikeda is creative is because he is full of determination when he does anything in his life. Establishing various institutions all over the world is not a task that everyone can achieve. He established these cultural, educational and peace institutions with full of passion and determination to let people in this world to seek happiness. Besides, he is courageous. Imagine you yourself will be engaging in a dialogue with Barrack Obama, the President of United States. Are you even brave enough to converse with him? Even though you are courageous enough, do you have the ability or wisdom to discuss and find solutions for the problems faced by the world with Obama? But Daisaku Ikeda conversed with many of the world's leading thinkers and leaders, such as Arnold J. Tonybee, Linus Pauling, Wangari Maathai, Ba Jin, Rosa Parks and many more. His wisdom and courage differentiates him from the others. Furthermore, he is not daunted by challenges. Even though the world is having a lot of crises and problems, he did not complain. Instead, he thought of solutions to overcome these obstacles by writing peace proposals and also engaging in conversations with different worlds leaders. It is very rare for someone who can think of the global situations and use his time to search for solutions to it.

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Characteristics of a Creative Person

In my opinion, some of the characteristics that a creative person should possess are: a) Optimistic

A creative person should be optimistic or thinks positively no matter what obstacles they confront. It does not mean that they are happy all the time, but they have the ability to curb the negative feelings and they feel that nothing is too big for them to overcome. b) Sensitive to surroundings

Creative people should be sensitive to the surroundings. This includes what is happening around them, what the people are doing around them, etc. Creative people tend to analyse these phenomenon and find the reasons for these happenings. Besides they are also curious people, where they like to know why certain things happened. c) Perseverance

He or she should not give up easily to be labelled as a creative person. Despite the worst, creative people will hold to their beliefs and persevere against all odds to achieve success. Their determination will differentiate them from the others. d) Confront Challenges

Creative people are different from the common they love challenges. Unlike others, they will think of constructive solutions for the challenges they have confronted, and not just complaining why they are so unlucky.

5.0

Conclusion

In short, Daisaku Ikeda is a good example of a creative person. If we want to be creative, the first thing we should do is to pay more attention to the surroundings. This small change can make us discover a lot of things that we do not know.