The Buddhist religion has taught to humanity the sense of compassion for life in every form and in all forms. The central theme of Buddha's teaching was ahimsa parmo dharmaha. That was Buddha's watchword, and it means harmlessness is the essence of religion. And it is wonderful to see that, though mankind has lived for centuries on animal food, the first principle of those who followed Buddha's message was to leave animal food, to live on a vegetarian diet. But, one might ask, "Is that all? Is Buddha's teaching to become vegetarian?" No, vegetarianism is a principle for becoming harmless.

The first step in becoming harmless is to become harmless to the one who stands next to us, to human beings. Very often you can be a vegetarian and you can be harmful too. It is recognition of brotherhood, even with the lowest creation. It does not mean that Buddha did not know the point of view of other great teachers, who did not make a remark on this subject. No, his mission was to create compassion in the heart of man. Buddha's belief was that the only remedy for all the harm that comes to man is harmlessness. And if you study all philosophy and ethics, in the end you will find this as the essence of the whole philosophy, that all pain comes by having no regard for the pain of another. It is automatic.

No doubt it is grosser to say, "Do not have animal food and live on a vegetarian diet." A fine teaching on the same principle would be to be conscientious every moment of your life, realizing that, by a thought or by a word, by a glance or frown, by the tone of voice, by atmosphere, by thought or feeling, you might hurt someone. And when we look at it with this principle, life becomes so deep and so wide and so full of sense and beauty that in every direction of life we find much to be done without thinking of occult things and psychic mysteries.

Life begins to unfold its mystery as soon as compassion is created in the heart, as soon as one's deepest feeling is wakened for all that is living, with regard for everyone one meets, for all that lives: deserving and undeserving, evolved and unevolved, foolish and wise. Then the outlook on life changes. And the result is that the soul attains that peace which is so difficult to attain in this life of woes. That statue of Buddha therefore is the example to look at: a man who has striven through life to become compassionate, as much as man can be, and to attain that peace which is most difficult to attain in this world.

There is an interesting and wonderful custom in Buddhist countries. That custom is that when a priest or a teacher dies they inaugurate wonderful celebrations. And the meaning is that people may see that the one who has devoted his life to God and truth and lived in compassion has been relieved of the woes of this world and has risen to the stage which is better still. It is as if the reward of his whole life's trial was not given to him through death. When one looks at it from this point of view it is a very beautiful custom.

Buddha also taught meditation, and his statue is the example of the posture of meditation which he taught: the meditation of peace. The other day in New York, I heard that some students of eastern thought proposed that there should be a public statue of Buddha erected in New York. Then I heard that there was great opposition to it, so it could not be erected. So I thought, "Imagine, hundreds of generals who have fought in wars have their statues in every place, suggesting wars and disasters, murdering and killing. If in order to balance it all there were one statue representing peace as a man who lived for humanity, not for this race or that race, a man who taught peace to the world, and who attained peace, if there were one example, it would be worth having."