Heresy, these are all absolute and eternal and they don't need our puny human minds to experience them!
The 4 formless jhānas (meditations) are includes in this quote. They depend on the mind, but its not the base/sphere of nirvana:
There is, bhikkhus, that base where there is no earth, no water, no fire, no air;
1. no base consisting of the infinity of space [ākāsānañcāyatanaṃ],
2. no base consisting of the infinity of consciousness [viññānañcāyatanaṃ],
3. no base consisting of nothingness [ākiñcaññāyatanaṃ],
4. no base consisting of neither-perception-nor-non-perception [nevasaññānāsaññāyatanaṃ];
neither this world nor another world nor both; neither sun nor moon. Here, bhikkhus, I say there is no coming, no going, no staying, no deceasing, no uprising. Not fixed, not movable, it has no support. Just this is the end of suffering.
http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/kn/ud/ud.8.01.irel.html
What comes after is “cessation of feeling & perception” or “nirodha-samāpatti”. Here all mental processes have stopped. The mind doesn’t work anymore. This is the base/sphere of nirvana. Beyond the (impermanent) mind.
"
Furthermore, with the complete transcending of the dimension of neither perception nor non-perception, Sariputta entered & remained in the
5. cessation of feeling & perception [saññā-vedayita-nirodha] [nirodha-samāpatti].
Seeing with discernment, his fermentations were totally ended. He emerged mindfully from that attainment. On emerging mindfully from that attainment, he regarded the past qualities that had ceased & changed: 'So this is how these qualities, not having been, come into play. Having been, they vanish.' He remained unattracted & unrepelled with regard to those qualities, independent, detached, released, dissociated, with an awareness rid of barriers. He discerned that 'There is no further escape,' and pursuing it there really wasn't for him.
http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/mn/mn.111.than.html
So, if all mental processes have stopped and the mind doesn’t work anymore, how is it that we still need the mind to experience it? The fact seems to be the opposite. Nirvana exists when the mind is stopped (
nirodha). That which is birthless and deathless (
nirvana) then exists in itself, clearly independent of the mind.
The Theravada classic commentary (Visuddhimagga by Buddhaghosa) says:
With regard to the difference existing between the monk abiding in this state of extinction on the one hand, and a dead person on the other hand, M 43 says:
· "
In him who is dead, and whose life has come to an end, the bodily (in-and-out breathing), verbal (thought-conception and discursive thinking), and mental functions (s.
sankhāra,2) have become suspended and come to a standstill, life is exhausted, the vital heat extinguished, the faculties are destroyed.
· Also
in the monk who has reached 'extinction of perception and feeling'
(saññā-vedayita-nirodha),the bodily, verbal and mental functions have been suspended and come to a standstill, but life is not exhausted, the vital heat not extinguished, and the faculties are not destroyed."
For details, see Vis.M. XXIII; for texts s. Path 206.
http://www.palikanon.com/english/wtb/n_r/nirodha_samaapatti.htm
We can also note that “cessation of feeling & perception” / “nirodha-samāpatti” (buddhism) is identical with nirvikalpa-samādhi / nirodha-samādhi (hinduism).
As we see in yoga sutras:
1.2. Yoga is inhibition [nirodha] of the mental processes.
1.3. Then the Seer is established in his own nature.
1.4. Otherwise, it conforms itself to the mental process.
