[gortusbig]

I don't see anything wrong with the differently translated suttas that can't be put down to an evolving English language. As for your 'rocks & solar systems' I think it means aggregates as your link actually suggests.

hi Brizzy

You are contradicting yourself, here. You have demonstrated why a consensus cannot be reached.

Rocks & solar systems are part of the aggregates, given they are "form".

Buddha taught:

You are preaching to the unconvertible, I am busily accumulating merit for my next 'existence'.

If you are busy accumulating merit for your next 'existence' then the suttas are not for you and to slander the suttas, like was done above, cannot be the source of merit, but, instead, the source of demerit. You are not helping others & you are not helping yourself. Instead, you are making obstacles to yourself and making obstacles to others.

Making merit requires giving to charity, giving to monks, following the five precepts, etc. Suttas are not required for these things.

You are right in that people will always have different interpretations as is seen within Theravada today.

Yes, Element was right in that people will always have different interpretations. However, you failed to acknowledge Element was also right in his translation of the Mula Sutta. The Buddha said:

I was just wondering if anybody could envisage a 'fundamentalist Sutta/Vinaya' group ever sprouting up within Theravada or indeed has it already done so and they are just regarded as an oddity. A bit like the embarrassing relative who nobody likes to talk about but nobody has the nerve to tell them to bugger off.

Element is regarded as an 'oddity'. 'Oddity' = 'rare'. Buddha taught:

Rare in the world is the appearance of one who teaches the Dhamma and Discipline proclaimed by the Tathagata.

AN 6.96 Yet you disagreed with Element in relation to the Mula Sutta, with a senseless translation, where your position remained unexplained & unjustified.