Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.Here is one of the points in which Jesus and the Taoist sages, particularly Chuang Tzu, disagree. Jesus is big on following written external rules (i.e., the 10 Commandments), while Chuang Tzu counters that, when a person's "heart is right," you only need follow it as your guide.
~ King James version ~
When the shoe fits, the foot is forgotten.
When the belt fits, the belly is forgotten.
When the heart is right, "for" and "against" are forgotten.
~ from Chapter 19 of the Zhuangzi ~
Put another way, Judaism and Christianity are built upon the foundation of hierarchical authority and conformity, while philosophical Taoism rests upon inner wisdom and following one's own path.
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Yet elsewhere in Matthew, Jesus seems to think that everything can be summed up in two commandments.
ReplyDelete22:35 Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him, and saying,
22:36 Master, which is the great commandment in the law?
22:37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
22:38 This is the first and great commandment.
22:39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
22:40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.
So really, you could only follow two and be ok (I guess).
Trey, you might be interested in the Skeptic's Annotated Bible. It has the entire bible online and points out verses that seem to proclaim what's unjust, cruel, absurd, etc. It will even admit that a few verses have good advice in them. http://skepticsannotatedbible.com/index.htm