I don't think (hard)jhana is needed to attain nibbana

[NgXinZhao]

@Sai18ram

Explain how it was possible to buddha to hear what ananda said while in imperturbable concentration

Ven Anālayo's book ~ Superiority Conceit in Buddhist Traditions, A Historical Perspective

He spoke of this in one of his comparative study courses of the Agamas and Pali discourses back 2011–2104 through the University of Hamburg. The links for those lectures are available on line (and have been posted on this forum too), but offhand I don’t have them. To expound a bit on what @Javier said, my recollection of what Ven Analayo said in the lecture is that one could be fully inside a jhana but then inadvertantly pop out for a moment, so to say, upon for example, hearing a loud sound if…