Sound as a Material Form

A loud sound can damage the eardrums and cause deafness. This demonstrates that sound is a material form (rūpa) possessing the impact force characteristic of material forms; thus, it acts as a tangible object (spraṣṭavya) that makes contact with the material ear, thereby damaging it. When the coarse aspect of sound comes into contact with the ear faculty, the ear consciousness first discerns the coarse sound, and then the mental consciousness discerns the subtle aspect of the sound. Typically, we first perceive the vibrational sound through the ear consciousness via the ear faculty—this pertains to the five dusts (objects of sense)—and only afterward can the mental consciousness recognize the specific nature of the sound and other subtle phenomena.