I will meet you there....

"When you see the Buddha on the road, kill Him!" A Zen saying that implies the spirit of non attachment that is the essence of any form of spiritual practice. Islam prohibits any form of graven images in the Mosques and even the Muslim Homes. The depiction of the Prophet of Allah in any art or painting is prohibited for the same similar reason of avoiding any from of attachment towards the forms that is projected by the human mind. The images of the Buddha has today become an idol of veneration and even of worship in many parts of the Buddhist World; this is very much contrary to the teachings of Gautama. 
The  Maha Prajna Paramita Hridaya Sutra or the Great Wisdom Beyond Wisdom, Heart Sutra of the Buddha's teaching primarily expounds the nature of form and emptiness in this realm of phenomena of the Trikayas of the Buddha.

"Success in Spirituality Means Cultivating the Father-Son-Holy Ghost of Christianity, "Three Pure Ones" of Taoism, dharmakaya-sambhogakaya-nirmanakaya of Buddhism, and Hinduism's Brahman-Vishnu-Shiva Triumvirate. They all Refer to Mastering Fundamental Essence, Appearance and Function." MeditationExpert.com.

In this day and age of endless manifestations of forms and images that bombards our senses, we are drowned in our own inability to sieve and shield ourselves from the illusions that our mind is subjected to on a daily basis. The masters of old have laid down numerous ways of facing down this mental formations and distractions and inherent within just every religious faith are means whereby one is taught how to allow all these manifestations to bounce off one's personal consciousness. The need for silence and serenity is paramount to every religious as well as spiritual practice, this need for the attainment towards equanimity within oneself is the prop that allows for deep self realization. One has to be like the leaf of the lotus that repels water while existing in water.

In the immortal words of the Buddha, a line that has embedded into my psyche ever since i came by it. " May we exist with the purity of a lotus in muddy waters!" This image as painted by the Shakyamuni Buddha is the essence of how Buddhism helps to elevate man from this life of bondage and suffering. The Buddha is said to have later been reborn as a Lotus Born, Padmasambhava who propagated the Vajrayana Buddhism primarily in Northern India and the Himalayas countries.

In Tibetan Esoteric Buddhism, in addition to worshiping Shakyamuni Buddha, they also worship Padmasambhava. It is said that Padmasambhava is the reincarnation of Shakyamuni Buddha, born eight years after the Buddha's passing. The Buddha was born of the womb and there were many things he could not teach as the founder of the orthodox teachings. Therefore, to found the esoteric teachings, he returned born of a lotus transformation. - MeditationExperts.com.

Esoteric Buddhism such as practiced in the Tibetan Vajrayana tradition is not dissimilar from that of Sufism of Islam, or Chan- Zen Buddhism of China and Japan. The essence of these schools is Agnosticism, -a person who believes that nothing is known or can be known of the existence or nature of God or of anything beyond material phenomena; a person who claims neither faith nor disbelief in God.  

“Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing 
and rightdoing there is a field.
I'll meet you there.

When the soul lies down in that grass
the world is too full to talk about.” 
― Jalaluddin Rumi