First, there is the outer path dhyana, practiced by non-Buddhist schools and religions where the most important goal is to attain samadhi. In this samadhi state one avoids influences and conflicts within one's body, mind, and the environment, and abides in the bliss of samadhi. Their highest aspiration is to enter some kind of heaven. One can say that Indian yoga or Chinese Daoist practices belong to this category.

Second Dhyana Level

The second dhyana is the dhyana of ordinary beings who have learned about the Buddhadharma and the laws of cause and effect (karma). People practicing at this level place great emphasis on samadhi and abide in it, taking it to be liberation. Often what they experience is just the unity of body and mind, of the inner and outer environments, of previous and following thoughts. This is often described as being one with the universe. In their samadhi, they experience the four dhyana heavens of form and formlessness, including the dhyana heavens of thought and no-thought. They experience a kind of emptiness, but not the true emptiness of genuine wisdom. Thus, they will often mistake the four dhyana heavens as the four fruition levels of the arhat,1 and think they are liberated.

While experiencing samadhi, they will have no greed, no doubt, no burden of body and mind, and will think that they have been liberated. But once they come out of samadhi and deal with loved ones, family property and wealth, their vexations inevitably return. When this happens, they will want to enter samadhi and experience bliss again. The main difference between the first two kinds of dhyana is whether or not the practitioner has been exposed to the teachings of Buddhadharma.