There are 8 Jhanas:
1st--joy and ease, but reasoning continues
2nd--no reasoning, but joy and ease
3rd--no reasoning, no joy and ease
4th--neither no reasoning or no joy and ease
5th--realm of the infinity of space
6th--realm of the infinity of consciousness
7th--realm of nothingness
8th--neither perception nor non-perception
The first 4 Jhanas are "Form Jhanas", and the next 4 are "Formless
Jhanas"
8th Jhana is a form of "cognition so subtle that it cannot be said
whether it exists or not." An attainer of the 8th Jhana will be
exist in the Nevasanna-nasannayatana bhumi after death. There are
many practitioners who have mistaken their jhanic experience to be
Nirvana.
I.1 Nevasanna-nasannayatana bhumi. The realm of neither
perception nor non-perception, the summit of all existences. They
can live a life span that is equivalent to that of 84000 Maha kappa
or universes. Udaka, the ascetic who was the second teacher
abandoned by the Buddha in his search for the Four Noble Truths was
reborn in this Brahma realm after dying on the night before the
Buddha decided to teach the Dhamma.(3) Reaching the eighth Jhana of
Samatha meditation can only attain this highest existence.
(please see topic: Different Existences and Realms in
Buddhism)
There are many religions in the world that leads to such a jhanic
state. However, Buddhism's Nirvana is beyond any of such states,
and enters into cessation.
* (a) All phenomena are shunya (void, empty), as they are
relative and so lack substantiality and independent
reality; they are conditioned by and depenedent on other phenomena
(this is the Buddhist theory of Pratitya-samutpanna or "dependent
origination") and hence in themselves ultimately
unreal.
* (b) The Absolute Reality is shunya or shunyata, as it is devoid
of empirical forms and thought constructs, no predicate
("is", "not-is", "is and not-is", neither "is nor not-is") can
legitamately be applied to it.
