They wrote an excellent summary of the thrust of the alleged problem, so I hope they don't mind if I quote them.
In the famous Chinese novel The Journey West a mischievous monkey named Sun Wukong turns the heavenly kingdom upside down. As punishment, he is banished and forced to live fused to a mountain, immovable, forever. After 500 years, he is released so that he can accompany Tang Xuan(san)zang eastward in order to procure numerous sacred writings. However, he isn’t granted total freedom. Instead, a golden band is placed around his head. Whenever he misbehaves, his master, Xuanzang, will recite a mantra and the band will immediately tighten, causing Wukong excruciating pain. Because of this, Wukong must “be good”.
Elegantly put.
The argument:
So what is Wukong’s dilemma?
Personally speaking, Wukong seems to be a very appropriate personification of Buddhism, a system of religious thought that requires its adherents to live in conformity to the rules laid down by its founder and later “masters” — or else. Because of particular teachings, like karma, reincarnation, and a vast array of “hells”, the motives of even the most genuine adherents become suspect to accusations of selfishness and self-interest. That is, you do good things to increase your karma so that you can escape this “nightmare” called life. You avoid doing bad things so that you will not be punished in one of the numerous hells (Naraka) accordingly.
So, Wukong’s dilemma could be summed up in a single question: Is Wukong serving his master out of genuine affection or fear of punishment? For that matter, are people executing religious duties out of a sincere heart or fear of punishment and retribution?
What are your thoughts? What is your motivation, fear or love?
Excellent questions but ones, I think, that come from a lack of familiarity with the teachings and their own criterion laid down for following them.
Let me explain.
I'm going to focus on one single sentence for a bit. I don't want to be accused of nitpicking, so while the rest of it will be addressed, I feel this is the root of the question.
Again, "You avoid doing bad things so that you will not be punished in one of the numerous hells (Naraka) accordingly."
Lying isnt my style, so I'm going to say that yes, fear as one's motivation is possible. When one thinks of what could happen in the next life it can be powerful. But power, no matter strong, does not need to be overwhelming. I'm reminded of Jataka no. 18. In brief, while staying near Jetavana, the Blessed One and a group of monks overhear conversation from a local village about preparations for animal sacrifice for a local "Feast of the Dead." In the usual set up, the monks put a question to the Buddha about the taking of life, and the Buddha answers and tells a story of the past. In that long gone eon, like our own, people practiced animal sacrifice.
That day, as the goat was being prepared slaughter, it laughed and cried. The young brahmin leading him, couldn't help but ask why that was so. The goat requested that question be asked again in the presence of the master who was to kill him. That done, he explains that like the man before him, he had killed a goat, and as a result his head had been cut off for 500 lives, this being the last. He was laughing in joy for he would be free from punishment after this life, and overcome with sorrow knowing that another being would be putting in motion the conditions for his own future suffering.
Hearing this, the other brahmin declared to his disciples that the goat wasn't to be killed henceforth. The goat dies when a chunk of rock, severed from a cliff by a bolt of lightning, decapitates him. The Buddha makes his appearance as a tree sprite, uttering a stanza that out of fear they abandon the taking of life. The Buddha then established them in morality.
Notice the order of things here: first there is the fear, the abandoning. Then there is non-aversion, cultivation.
This relationship might seem strange at first, but it is the four noble truths in action. I'm going to use their active formulation from the Patisambhidamagga
Suffering to be understood
The Cause to be abandoned
Cessation to be realized
The Path to be cultivated
Fear, that is to say, aversion, is one of the three root poisons keeping one bound in samsara. That fear is abandoned with the cultivation of it's wholesome root. As the four ennobling truths, to borrow a turn of phrase, make clear first comes suffering, in the Jataka tale it was fear of the results of bad deeds. Suffering was understood. They abandoned the taking of life. The Buddha taught them the precepts which enabled them to realize and cultivate the path.
To elaborate a bit, knowledge of suffering is integral to release from suffering. As put repeatedly in the canon, 'I am oppressed with birth, aging, & death, with sorrows, lamentations pains, distresses, & despairs. I am oppressed with stress, overcome with stress. Perhaps an ending of this entire mass of suffering & stress might be found!' And it is there, in that understanding of suffering that awakening begins - [1].
So, Wukong's Dilemma? In the end it feels to me like there is no dilemma. While fear can be, and often is, a powerful motivating factor, it is important to know that one can act without fear and make the choice to do so. Even if our choices don't lead to enlightenment in this life, we can act knowing that we're laying the conditions for that to be so at some point in the future.
This goes a long way towards answering the charge that Buddhism is, "a system of religious thought that requires its adherents to live in conformity to the rules laid down by its founder and later “masters” — or else." and it's follow-up question, "For that matter, are people executing religious duties out of a sincere heart or fear of punishment and retribution?"
First, one doesn't follow the dhamma for no reason, and secondly, there are suttas that discuss what to look for in a teacher - [2]. Third and last there are no religious duties. One doesn't do them because one is obligated, but because they are undertaken voluntary. Remember, one of the fetters that keeps one bound to samsara is attachment to rites and rituals as having any sort of liberating effect beyond being an aid to cultivation - [3].
Thus we see how, with a fuller understanding of the dhamma, doubt is dispelled and cessation from suffering can be obtained.
May all beings be happy and free from suffering.
[1] SN 22.80 among many others. For a superlative treatment of suffering as the first link in the chain that leads to the end of suffering, see Bhikkhu Bodhi's Transcendental Dependent Arising.
[2] The guidelines for choosing the dhamma are given at AN 3.65. I also recommend AN 3.40. As for teachers, there is MN 95 see also AN 4.111 and 5.159. The parallel here is that good friends are just as essential as a teacher - AN 8.54, 9.1, SN 45.2, etc
[3] AN 10.13
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