四執

The four erroneous tenets; also 四邪; 四迷; 四術; there are two groups:

I.

The four of the 外道 outsiders, or non-Buddhists, i. e. of Brahminism, concerning the law of cause and effect:

(1) 邪因邪果 heretical theory of causation, e. g. creation by Mahesvara;

(2) 無因有果 or 自然, effect independent of cause, e. g. creation without a cause, or spontaneous generation;

(3) 有因無果 cause without effect, e. g. no future life as the result of this.

(4) 無因無果 neither cause nor effect, e. g. that rewards and punishments are independent of morals.

II.

The four erroneous tenets of 內外道 insiders and outsiders, Buddhist and Brahman, also styled 四宗 the four schools, as negated in the 中論 <Mādhyamika śāstra>:

(1) outsiders, who do not accept either the 人 (zh) ren or 法 (zh) fa ideas of 空 (zh) kong;

(2) insiders who hold the Abhidharma or Sarvāstivādāḥ tenet, which recognizes 人空 human impersonality, but not 法空 the unreality of things;

(3) also those who hold the 成實 Satyasiddhi tenet which discriminates the two meanings of 空 (zh) kong but not clearly; and also

(4) those in Mahāyāna who hold the tenet of the realists.