Hi Robert,
I don't believe I said anything that implies that discerning precise
meaning of sacred texts is a bad idea, but since you have that impression
let me clarify what I meant.
BTW, as I was typing "sacred texts", I misspelled it with the anagram
"scared texts", which is quite fitting since dogmatic clingers get scared
when new evidence challenges the authority of their "sacred texts". When I
read the article about 616, I could imagine there were a lot of quivering
fundamentalists out there who felt more than a little discomfort and
insecurity, whereas the skillful Satanist was nonplussed, took it in stride
and simply responded by saying that if 616 is adopted as the new standard,
then that's what they'll use because they clearly comprehend the purpose of
616 and realize the label is just a label, and not inherently significant.
What I'm praising is the pragmatism of the Satanist leader who didn't
waste any time or energy debating over whether the change to 616 was
justified, authentic, or necessary.
The lesson that the follower of the Buddha can take from this is that all
of the sacred texts are only a map. Another Buddhist might have a map that
looks different than yours, with different labels. Do all of these Buddhist
maps show a path that leads to nibbana? You can spend your whole life
debating with the Buddhists with maps different than yours, or you can put
the map in your back pocket, start walking on the path, and only pull the
map back out when necessary. In this way, by actually walking on the path
you will come to know which of the differing Buddhist maps are genuine or
not, and passionate arguments with other Buddhist mapholders can be avoided
and transcended. I no longer have extraneous concerns over whether there was
a single historical Gotama Buddha who uttered the words exactly as they
occurred in any Buddhist sutra. My only concern over map authenticity is
whether the map shows a path that leads to nibbana. If I walk the path and
it leads to nibbana, I don't care what the labels on the map are, what color
the font is, who it attributes as the mapmaker. The map could be made by a
Christian, Taoist, Mahayanist, vajrayanist, Satanist, but if I walk the path
it shows and it leads to nibbana, as far as I'm concerned it's the genuine
word of the Buddha. Now obviously some discursive thinking and mundane
discernment is necessary to help choose which map to try out, but when one
realizes that the map is just a map, the letters and words on there are just
meant to point the way on the path, and that ACTUALLY TREADING THE PATH IS
WHAT'S IMPORTANT, one loses any motivation to debate [to any extent beyond
what yields truly beneficial results for others].