耳根Ear-faculty
色法十一之第二。五根之第二。為四大種所造之淨色，耳識（→#2）之所依，聲境（→#66）之能取。不可見、有對——非外耳殼之扶根塵，乃寄於耳竅中之清淨色根，唯佛眼天眼能見。
漢zh · Xuanzang 譯
色法十一之第二。五根之第二。為四大種所造之淨色，耳識（→#2）之所依，聲境（→#66）之能取。不可見、有對——非外耳殼之扶根塵，乃寄於耳竅中之清淨色根，唯佛眼天眼能見。
經
[共傳] 《雜阿含經》卷十三（經322，T2n0099_p0091c05–06），佛說五色根之核心定義以「亦如是說」公式涵攝：
眼是內入處，四大所造淨色，不可見，有對。耳、鼻、舌、身內入處亦如是說。
——SA 322 此句為 集論五根樣板之經據：耳根之經藏層次定義不於經藏作獨立展開，而是隱含收入「亦如是說」之攝。色法之經藏 / 論藏分工模型：經藏以單一樣板覆五根，各根之開展屬論藏之事。
[大乘] 《大佛頂首楞嚴經》卷六（觀世音菩薩耳根圓通章），二十五圓通之第二十五、文殊揀選之最殊勝法門：
於時有佛出現於世，名觀世音。我於彼佛，發菩提心，彼佛教我，從聞、思、修，入三摩地。初於聞中，入流亡所；所入既寂，動靜二相，了然不生。如是漸增，聞所聞盡；盡聞不住，覺所覺空；空覺極圓，空所空滅；生滅既滅，寂滅現前。
——耳根於漢傳佛教中獨佔教義之尊之據：觀世音以耳根入道，文殊揀二十五圓通而以耳根為最——「反聞聞自性，性成無上道」（卷六）。耳根之特殊性非僅阿毘達磨五根之一，而是漢傳實踐中最核心之根之修行入路。
論
《大乘五蘊論》（玄奘譯，T31n1612_p0848b14）：
云何耳根？謂聲為境清淨色。
——《大乘五蘊論》 為集論之字字對譯（詳梵段）：一句涵集論雙義之「境取面」，per-根定義之最簡漢譯形式。
按：三層進路並陳——經藏樣板（SA 322 「亦如是說」覆五根）、論藏定義（《大乘五蘊論》 各根最簡對譯）、大乘修行（楞嚴二十五圓通之終極）。經藏以單一樣板覆五根定義之經藏層次義；論藏 per-根開展至最簡定義句；大乘修行論則切換進路，從阿毘達磨定義轉為實踐者之圓通法門表述。此三層進路為色法五根之標準結構；楞嚴進路之切換（從阿毘達磨定義到實踐性現量）為耳根所獨——觀世音之終極地位於 baifa 中無平行對應。
梵saṃskṛta
śrotra-indriya < śrotra（耳）+ indriya（根）。
śrotra < √śru「聞、聽」+ -tra（工具後綴，「能 X 之器」）< 印歐祖語 *ḱlew- 「聞、被聞、有名」——⭐ 此為 5 indriyas 中之最強印歐祖語同源鏈（vs cakṣus 之 IE 不確；詳 #60）：
| 同源 | 義 |
|---|---|
| 拉丁 clueō | 「被稱為、有名」 |
| 拉丁 inclutus | 「著名」 |
| 希臘 kléos | 「聲名」（印歐祖語 *ḱléwos- 「what is heard」之直接反映） |
| 希臘 klúō | 「聞」 |
| Old English hlysnan | → English listen |
| Proto-Germanic *hlūdaz < 印歐祖語 *ḱleu-tó- | 「被聞者」→ English loud |
| Old Irish clú | 「名聲」 |
| Old Church Slavonic slovo | 「詞」 |
「聞性」之印歐祖語詞源雙端錨定——一端為「能聞」（śrotra · listen），一端為「被聞」（loud · slovo · kléos）。能聞 / 被聞共出於同一 *ḱlew- 根。Pāli sota 由 śr→s 標準音變所成。
indriya < indra-「能力之神」+ -iya（屬格後綴）「屬於 Indra 者、有能力者」（詳 #60 梵段）。
⭐⭐⭐ 同根義理錨：śrāvaka（聲聞）= √śru + -aka（agent 後綴）「能聽聞之人、聽聞者」。耳根（receiving organ）與聲聞乘（receiving disciple）同根命名——佛法之 oral 傳承架構直接 hooked into 印歐祖語 *ḱlew- 之 root。Pāli 經之開頭公式 evaṃ me sutaṃ「如是我聞」（sutaṃ < suta < √śru 同根）為此 root 之 ritual performance：能聞之根（sota）、被聞之內容（suta）、能聞之人（sāvaka）、所成之慧（聞慧）——四者共一詞源。
prasāda（淨）之印歐祖語詞源（√*sed- 「沉澱澄清」）詳 #60 梵段；五根共此 etymology backbone，#61 不重複。
《阿毘達磨集論》（Abhidharma-samuccaya，Pradhan 校本 [Abhidh-s 3]）：
śrotrendriyaṃ katamat / catvāri mahābhūtānyupādāya śrotravijñānāśrayo rūpaprasādaḥ /
何為耳根？依四大種，為耳識之所依，淨色。
按：Asg 公式同 #60，僅 cakṣur- → śrotra- 之一字代換。《大乘五蘊論》「謂聲為境清淨色」為境取面之逐語素仿譯，識依面則隱含。色法之 Asg-漢譯仿譯模式詳 #60。
巴pāḷi
南傳 28 色法（Vism XIV.34–77 / Abhidhammattha-saṅgaha 第六章）之 sota-pasāda，5 種 pasāda-rūpa 之第二：
| 瑜伽行派 (11 色法) | 南傳 (28 色) | 對應度 |
|---|---|---|
| śrotra-indriya（耳根） | sota-pasāda（耳淨色） | ✅ 直接對應 |
| rūpa-prasāda（淨色） | pasāda-rūpa（淨色） | ✅ 同詞同義 |
| 五根之第二 | 5 pasāda-rūpa 之第二 | ✅ 系統位置一致 |
⭐ Skt → Pāli 語音 transparency 為 5 根中最乾淨——śr- → s-（齶化簡化）、-tra 後綴吸收：śrotra → sota 之轉化乃 rule-governed。耳根於 dia-文本之 / dia-traditional 兩個維度都是「最明顯」之 indriya——最強印歐祖語鏈 × 最乾淨 Skt-Pāli 對應。
經
《相應部·六處相應》SN 35 系列之公式：
Sotañca paṭicca sadde ca uppajjati sota-viññāṇaṃ. 緣耳與聲，生耳識。
——耳根於經藏中作為耳識生起之緣而出（同 #60 之眼根模式）；per-根定義之精細層在論藏。
論
⚠ In Review · Vism XIV.46–47 sota-pasāda 四相分析（lakkhaṇa / rasa / paccupaṭṭhāna / padaṭṭhāna），結構同 #60，代行（前五識所無時之代行） sota 為 cakkhu、sadda 為 rūpa：
| 四相 | Pāli | 義 |
|---|---|---|
| lakkhaṇa 相 | sadd'âbhighātârahaṃ bhūtappasādaṃ ⚠️ 待字元核校 | 堪受聲境之大種淨色 |
| rasa 業 | saddesu āviñchanaṃ ⚠️ 待字元核校 | 於諸聲中令意趣向 |
| paccupaṭṭhāna 現起 | viññāṇassa ādhārabhāvo ⚠️ 待字元核校 | 為耳識之所依 |
| padaṭṭhāna 近因 | sotukāmatā-nidāna-bhūta-sambhūta ⚠️ 待字元核校 | 由「欲聞」之業所成大種 |
按：耳根之南北彙合同 #60 典範（名同、義同、四大依、位置一致），且語源 transparency 更乾淨——śrotra ↔ sota 之語音 mapping 為 5 根之最 rule-governed 對應。Vism sota-pasāda 逐字 Pāli 俟字元級核校；本文沿 #60 之處理保留結構框架。
漢綜述zh-synthesis
「耳根」之梵文 śrotra-indriya 為兩段合成——śrotra（耳，能聞之器）+ indriya（根、感官能力，詳 #60 詞源段）。śrotra < √śru「聞、聽」+ -tra（工具後綴，「能 X 之器」）。⭐⭐ śrotra 之印歐祖語同源鏈確立且廣佈——śrotra < 印歐祖語 *ḱlew-「聞、被聞、有名」，認定確立，跨印歐語族廣佈：希臘 kléos（「聲名」，直接< 印歐祖語 *ḱléwos-「被聞之物」）、klúō（「聞」）；拉丁 clueō（「被稱為、有名」）、inclutus（「著名」）；古英 hlysnan → 英文 listen；原始日耳曼 *hlūdaz < 印歐祖語 *ḱleu-tó-「被聞者」→ 英文 loud；古愛爾蘭 clú（「名聲」）；古教會斯拉夫 slovo（「詞」）。印歐祖語 *ḱlew- 之同源網絡雙端錨定——一端「能聞」（śrotra，listen），一端「被聞」（loud，slovo，kléos）；聞性之器官與聞性所成之名聲共出於同一詞根。⭐⭐⭐ √śru 之義理雙命名：梵文 śrāvaka（聲聞）< √śru + -aka（agent 後綴）「能聽聞之人」——耳根（能聞之器）與聲聞乘（能聞之人）同根命名；巴利經之開頭公式 evaṃ me sutaṃ（「如是我聞」，sutaṃ < √śru 同根）亦承同根——能聞之根（sota）、所聞之內容（suta）、能聞之人（sāvaka）、所成之慧（聞慧，śruta-mayī-prajñā）四者共出此一印歐祖語根，佛法之口傳承架構全鈎於此。Pāli sota < śrotra 由 śr→s 齶化簡化所成；Skt-Pāli 對應規則清晰（詳南北段）。prasāda（淨）之印歐祖語詞源（*sed-「沉澱澄清」，詳 #60 詞源段）為五根共用之語源骨幹，此不重述；sota-pasāda 之 pasāda 與 #60 典範 cakkhu-pasāda 同此詞根（→ 跨 cetasika–rūpa 之 prasāda 雙地呼應詳 #60 詞源段 + 譯名段）。
耳根為色法十一之第二、五根之第二。義理核心同 #60 典範三軸：四大種所造之淨色（catvāri mahābhūtānyupādāya rūpaprasādaḥ）+ 耳識（→#2）之所依（vijñānāśraya）+ 聲境（→#66）之能取。Asg 公式「śrotrendriyaṃ katamat / catvāri mahābhūtānyupādāya śrotravijñānāśrayo rūpaprasādaḥ」為 #60 公式之單字代換（cakṣur- → śrotra-），系統之公式平行即此。《大乘五蘊論》「云何耳根？謂聲為境清淨色」為 Asg 境取面之逐語素仿譯。「不可見、有對」（anidarśana, sapratigha）之義理分判詳 #60 典範義理段；耳根之扶根塵（外耳殼、耳道）與淨色根（寄於耳竅中之清淨色根）之分判亦同典範（sota-pasāda 為淨色根而非扶根塵，分判詳 #60 paradigm）。⭐ 耳根於 baifa 阿毘達磨定義層之架構地位同 #60 典範：由阿賴耶（→#8）異熟種子所變現，不需九緣架構，無「至佛位」之 āśraya-parāvṛtti（詳 #60 義理段 + 英文段 Doctrinal frame）。本條為五根之第二。
耳根之 Skt→Pāli 音對應為規則齶化簡化：南傳 sota-pasāda（耳淨色）與瑜伽行派 śrotra-indriya 之 śrotra → sota（śr→s 齶化、-tra 後綴吸收），全為規則音變，無例外。義理層面，南北傳於耳根定義完全收斂：名同（sota-pasāda ↔ śrotra-indriya 之 pasāda/indriya 雖異，皆指「能取之根」）、義同（淨色 + 識所依）、四大依同、位置同（5 pasāda-rūpa 之第二 / 5 indriya 之第二）。28 vs 11 之系統基數差異（南傳細分、北傳歸併，詳 #60 南北段）不影響耳根層之完全收斂。sota-pasāda 之 pasāda 與 śrotra-indriya 之 rūpa-prasāda 共印歐祖語 *sed- 同根（音義雙確認）；Vism XIV 之 sota-pasāda 四相（lakkhaṇa / rasa / paccupaṭṭhāna / padaṭṭhāna，結構同 #60）與 Asg 雙義結構收斂一致——lakkhaṭhāna 對應 Asg「淨色」（rūpa-prasāda），paccupaṭṭhāna 對應 Asg「識所依」（vijñānāśraya）。
耳根之修持涵義於阿毘達磨之能取根定義之外，於漢傳實踐中有獨一無二之地位——《大佛頂首楞嚴經》二十五圓通（卷六）以文殊揀選觀世音菩薩之耳根圓通為最殊勝法門（二十五圓通第一），即 #61 §漢段所引之「反聞聞自性，性成無上道」（→#61 §漢段已引）。⚠️ 楞嚴經之引用依據詳 #60 譯者按 [大乘] 引文選用說明。耳根之修持特性在諸根中尤顯：聽覺本具「常開性」——眼可閉，耳不可閉；聲音於睡眠中仍入——此持續開放性使耳根成為「反聞」（inward hearing）之天然法門。「反聞」之現象學層次：由「追逐聲境之出流」反轉為「住於能聞之自性本身」，是 śru 詞根所命名之接收性之回轉——詞根命名之「聞」與修行所要反觀之「聞」同一字，同一動作，此為此詞源之修持義理密度。此外，śravaṇa-cintā-bhāvanā（聞慧、思慧、修慧）以聞為三慧之入口：耳根所依之「聞法」（dhamma-śravaṇa）是佛法接受之典型方式——律藏與 Nikāya 以 evaṃ me sutaṃ 為每部經開頭，performatively 宣示此傳承以聽聞為 primary modality。
漢譯「耳根」為玄奘之既譯——「耳」為 śrotra 之意譯（取器官義），「根」字取「根本所依」義（詳 #60 譯名段）。Śrotra-indriya 之英譯通行選擇：Ear-faculty（Stcherbatsky、Wallace、Bhikkhu Bodhi 主用，保守，保 indriya 之 faculty 義，本譯沿用）；Ear-organ 易令現代讀者誤讀為扶根塵之耳殼（本譯不採）；Ear-base 混入 āyatana「處」之空間性（本譯不採）。Śrāvaka（聲聞）為此詞源值得標記之義理延伸：耳根之根（√śru）= 聲聞弟子之名（śrāvaka）= 所聞之教（suta/śruta）——一根貫穿 organ / vocation / content / wisdom 四者。
耳根 ——依四大種，為耳識（→#2）之所依，聲（→#66）之能取；淨色為性，不可見、有對。
英綜述en-synthesis
Sanskrit śrotra-indriya compounds śrotra ("ear," from √śru "to hear" with instrumental -tra, "the instrument of hearing") and indriya ("faculty," see #60). Unlike cakṣus (whose IE attestation is uncertain), śrotra is anchored to one of the most secure roots in the Indo-European lexicon: PIE *ḱlew- "to hear, to be heard, to be famed." The cognate field is wide and rule-governed: Greek kléos ("fame, what is heard," directly < PIE *ḱléwos-) and klúō ("hear"); Latin clueō ("be called, be famed") and inclutus ("famous"); Old English hlysnan → English listen; Proto-Germanic *hlūdaz < PIE *ḱleu-tó- ("the heard one") → English loud; Old Irish clú ("renown"); Old Church Slavonic slovo ("word"). The root is bilateral — the same *ḱlew- that names hearing also names being-heard, fame, renown, and the spoken word: a four-millennia-old etymology of the ear as the organ that takes in what carries fame and word. The Sanskrit doctrinal anchor that this etymology immediately surfaces is śrāvaka (聲聞, "hearer, disciple-by-hearing") — the same √śru that names the ear-faculty also names the paradigmatic Buddhist receiver of teaching. This is not coincidence: the Buddhist hearer-class is named with the same root as the hearing-organ, a single Indo-European word doing double duty across faculty and vocation. Pāli sota (the faculty) and Pāli suta ("heard, that which is heard," in the canonical evaṃ me sutaṃ "thus have I heard") both descend from this root. The opening line of every Pāli sutta — evaṃ me sutaṃ — is the ritual performance of this etymology: the receiving-organ, the receiving-content, the receiving-person, and the wisdom-thereby-formed (śruta-mayī-prajñā, 聞慧) all name themselves with the same PIE root. (The prasāda component — "clarified matter," from PIE *sed- "settle clear" — is shared across all five faculties; see #60 for the full *sed- chain and the cross-dharma resonance with śraddhā #19.)
The ear-faculty in Yogācāra is the second of the five indriyas, structurally identical to the eye-faculty in every architectural respect: clarified material substrate (rūpa-prasāda) derived from the four primary elements, lodged within the gross ear-organ (the cartilage and ear-canal are the sahabhū-rūpa, the coarse support; the actual śrotra-indriya is the subtle clarified matter inside it), serving as the internal support (āśraya) for ear-consciousness (→#2) to arise with respect to sound (→#66). Asaṅga's Asg formula gives śrotra-indriya with a single substitution from cakṣur-indriya, preserving every other element word-for-word — the system insists on the parallelism. The three architectural points from #60 apply unchanged: (1) five-channel parallelism with no crossing, (2) non-visible and resistant, (3) projected by the ālaya (→#8) from the maturation-seed and not arisen-from-conditions in the way vijñāna is. What is distinctive about the ear-faculty within this shared architecture is not abhidharmic but cultural-epistemic: hearing is the modality through which the Buddhist tradition transmits itself. The triad śravaṇa-cintā-bhāvanā ("hearing, reflection, cultivation" / 聞慧·思慧·修慧) names the entry-point as hearing — not seeing, not thinking, not feeling — and this is a structural commitment about how dharma is received. The evaṃ me sutaṃ that opens every Pāli sutta makes the same claim performatively: the canonical voice presents itself as a heard-and-remembered transmission, not as a seen-and-recorded text. The ear-faculty's structural location in the abhidharma list does not by itself record this elevation; the elevation lives in the practice tradition (dhamma-savana, dhamma-śravaṇa) and, in East Asian Buddhism, in the canonical Mahāyāna text that places ear-faculty contemplation as the supreme penetration: the Śūraṅgama-sūtra's ranking of the twenty-five yuán-tōng (圓通) entry-points names Avalokiteśvara's "turning hearing back to hear self-nature" (反聞聞自性) as paramount.
As with the eye-faculty (#60), the ear-faculty is one of the cleanest North–South correspondences in the entire 100-dharma list. Theravāda's sota-pasāda maps one-to-one onto Yogācāra's śrotra-indriya at every joint: same morphological qualifier (pasāda / prasāda, identical PIE root, identical "clarified matter" semantics), same structural position (second of five pasāda-rūpas, second of five indriyas), same definition (clarified matter derived from the four great elements, support for ear-consciousness with sound as object). The phonological correspondence Skt śrotra ↔ Pāli sota is among the most rule-governed in the entire Skt–Pāli mapping (śr→s palatalization, -tra suffix absorbed); within the 100-dharma list, this is the cleanest etymological pair the two traditions share for any single dharma. Vism's four-fold lakkhaṇa-rasa-paccupaṭṭhāna-padaṭṭhāna for sota-pasāda structurally converges with Asg's "support for ear-consciousness, clarified matter": the same architectural account in two registers. Pāli canonical attestation in Saṃyutta-Nikāya's Saḷāyatana-saṃyutta and the Sanskrit parallel in Saṃyukta-Āgama 322 both treat the ear-faculty within the dependent-arising formula (sotañca paṭicca sadde ca uppajjati sota-viññāṇaṃ) — sutra-level coverage by template, abhidharma-level elaboration deferred. The Mahāyāna-distinctive elevation of ear-faculty contemplation (the Śūraṅgama yuán-tōng ranking) is a Chinese-canonical layer not paralleled in the early Theravāda commentarial tradition; this is a real divergence, but a divergence about contemplative practice-priority rather than about the abhidharmic definition of the faculty. The faculty is shared inheritance; the practice elevation is sectarian.
The ear-faculty's special place in Buddhist practice is encoded in the architecture of the tradition itself before any individual practitioner sits down. East Asian Buddhism extends the elevation in the Śūraṅgama-sūtra's twenty-five yuán-tōng: twenty-four arhats and bodhisattvas report their faculty-of-entry, and Mañjuśrī's selection-verse names Avalokiteśvara's ear-faculty contemplation — fǎn wén wén zì-xìng (反聞聞自性, "turn hearing back to hear self-nature") — as paramount. The contemplative move named here has a precise structure: the practitioner does not chase external sound (which is outflow, 出流, the consciousness-stream rushing toward viṣaya) but reverses the directionality of awareness, attending to the hearing-itself rather than the heard-content (入流亡所, "entering the stream and losing the object"). What gets discovered when this reversal succeeds is named in the Śūraṅgama's chiasmic compression: wén suǒ wén jìn (聞所聞盡, "hearing and the heard exhausted"), jué suǒ jué kōng (覺所覺空, "awareness and the aware emptied"), kōng suǒ kōng miè (空所空滅, "emptiness and the emptied extinguished") — successive collapses of subject-object polarity until what remains is jì miè xiàn qián (寂滅現前, "extinction manifesting before"). The ear-faculty is suited to this reversal in a way the other four are less suited: hearing is "always-already on" without volitional engagement (one cannot close one's ears the way one closes one's eyes; sound continues during sleep), and hearing has no clear inside/outside boundary (sound penetrates the body and the consciousness-stream simultaneously). The faculty's etymology — śru-as-receiving — is the same gesture practiced and the same gesture eventually emptied. Practitioners working with the Śūraṅgama-sūtra's ear-faculty contemplation, Avalokiteśvara devotion (guān-yīn, 觀音, "contemplating sound"), or simple noting practice ("hearing, hearing") at the auditory gate, are all working at this seam between the faculty's natural always-already-receiving and the awareness that can turn back on the receiving itself. ⚠️ Note: the Śūraṅgama-sūtra is cited by its Taishō number (T19n0945, translated into Chinese in 705 CE); its translation history is recorded in the traditional sūtra catalogues. Within this volume's three-tier source markings the Śūraṅgama passages stand as East Asian Mahāyāna canonical testimony, cited on the strength of the text's canonical standing in the Chinese tradition (see the [大乘] source note in entry #60).
Ear-faculty (śrotra-indriya) — the clarified material substrate, derived from the four primary elements, that serves as the internal support of ear-consciousness with the sound domain as its object; non-visible to the gross ear, occupying physical space, regenerated continuously by the maturation-projection of the storehouse-consciousness; second of the five sense-faculties and second of the eleven matter-dharmas; named by the same Indo-European root *ḱlew- that names "hearing," "the heard," and the paradigmatic Buddhist disciple (śrāvaka) who receives the dharma through this faculty.
譯translator's note
譯者按： 五根範式之結構分析詳 S3 色法論文（⚠️ 論文編號待確認，同 #60）。值得標記之 #61 獨特觀察為 √śru 之雙重命名——同一印歐祖語 *ḱlew- 詞根命名了「能聞之根」（śrotra，耳根）、「能聞之人」（śrāvaka，聲聞）、「所聞之內容」（śruta / sutaṃ，經開頭 evaṃ me sutaṃ「如是我聞」之主詞）、「所成之慧」（śruta-mayī-prajñā，聞慧）；佛法之口傳承架構全鈎入此印歐祖語根。耳根於 baifa 中之獨特處乃其深植於整個佛法傳承之口傳結構，非僅五根之一（→#19 信之 prasāda 與五根 rūpa-prasāda 共詞源已詳 #60）。（[大乘] 楞嚴圓通引文之來源框架詳 #60 譯者按 §[大乘] 引文選用說明。）