Human beings are very influenced by sight and icons. Just as I was saying yesterday, when we see in nature something, using the sight. If we're aware at that present moment, we can see more deeply into what message that sight is giving to us. We have senses. Sometimes just going from the head doesn't have the same effect that a sight does, that a sound does. Having been a visual artist, I understand the power of sight to either inspire somebody or to take the emotions in different ways. They are very powerful sense contacts. People in the advertising world understand this very much, and they use it to their great advantage. And so in the same way, just as advertising uses it, having a Buddha statue to remind us can have a powerful effect when our wisdom is not very strong.
The same with sound, the chanting for instance, especially if you know what it means, the mere contact and the sound of it can draw us out of the mental reverie that we often will be lost in. Understanding how these types of sight can make the mind go higher or lower, I can understand why the Buddha statue has come to be. Personally, when I go back to the West, and the icons that I see are not so inspiring, and then when I come back and I see a Buddha statue, the emotions are affected in a very positive way. Because I know what it means and I am reminded much more effectively than if I'm surrounded by billboards reminding me of what I lack, or what they would want me to believe I lack.