Realization. Not rules.......

Krishnamurti showed that all people who seem to be very good and have the highest ideals are really motivated by the same sort of desires as people who rob banks.Only they give their desires a more noble name, so as to better conceal them.(Alan Watts)

For some unknown reason, I had a rather Zen approach or understanding to the Bible, especially when it came to the Gospels when I was studying to be it's minister. It created a good deal of difficulty for me as I intuitively understood the spirit of the law and not the letter of the law in much of what I read and applied. Fundamentalists need to be able to fit everything into a tightly knit box and back it up with passages from the Bible. In the time of Jesus, this was also the case as the Pharisees and the Sadducees held strictly to the letter of the law and saw it as blasphemy to do anything less.
I recall the religious pride held by those that seemed to separate themselves from the world all the while preaching Jesus and God's love for the world.
I am brought back to that period of my life as I watch the "Religious Right" and much of our current government seek to help the world to save itself from itself.
I admit, that when it comes to spiritual growth, true love and compassion, as expressed by Jesus, within Tao or Zen, it can be a rather elusive thing because it is hard to understand. And...that is the point! It is not understood in the way that we memorize and apply scripture or the law. It is not known by keeping commandments. It can be very difficult indeed! How often do Buddhists also begin to study and practice Buddhism in order to change themselves; to attain bliss; to feel good and happy; to be healthy or attain some omniscient state only to learn that, although these states of being may be acheived through Buddhism, the very seeking of them will hold them at bay, at arms length, perpetually out of reach.
In Pali, the phrase sati-sampajanna, "intuitive awareness" or as in Taoism the phrase Wu-Chi, "wander without purpose" is spirituality based on realization not rules.