Embryology and Buddhism

There is a saying in embryology, "ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny". What this means is that the stages of human embryo development are closely mimicked by the evolutionary development of animals from a single cell organism (fusion of egg and sperm), to invertebrates such as jelly fish, to higher invertebrates such as worms, to vertebrates such as amphibians, fish, mammals, and then man.

Likewise, there are stages in the development of the Buddhist Law which are reflected in the enlightenment of the practitioner who embrace the Law at a particular stage of its development. Thus, for example, the enlightenment of the Therevadin practitioner reflects the Theravadin Law. Since the pinnacle of  development of the Buddhist Law is the Scripture of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Law, the enlightenment of the practitioner of the Lotus Sutra surpasses that of the practitioner at any other stage of development of the Buddhist Law. The most important matter is always the Law one embraces, not the priests, leaders, or body of believers.

The lifeblood and transmission of the Law is the Law itself  [Sutra scrolls]. In asserting that the lifeblood is transmitted through priests or believers is to arrest one's development at a stage comparable to an an amphibian. Perhaps a partial enlightenment (lower vertebrate) is possible but this stage or state is so far from the Supreme Enlightenment (fully realized man) of the Eternal Shakyamuni that it is barely, if at all, discernable from the deluded state (one-celled organism). A few days or weeks practice to a correct object of worship is all that is needed to bear out my assertion.