APHORISM #1: What I call the path of religion, the first step on the spiritual ladder, Shankara refers to as Karma or the path of ritualistic action.

APHORISM #2: What I call the path of Yoga, the second step on the spiritual ladder, Shankara refers to as Upasana or the path of worship and meditation.

APHORISM #3: What I call the path of Wisdom, the third step on the spiritual ladder, Shankara refers to as Jnana or the path of Knowledge.

APHORISM #4: Shankara repeatedly asserts (as I do) that the Absolute can be realized through knowledge and knowledge alone; action and meditation are subsidiary or indirect practices that merely prepare the mind to receive the light of pure Knowledge.

APHORISM #5: Good actions (karma) purify the mind, whereas worship and meditation (upasana) concentrate the mind.

APHORISM #6: Knowledge is not an act, physical or mental; it is revelatory. This revelation, when combined with reason, becomes Insight, removing ignorance or nescience and leaving the Self to shine in its own glory.

APHORISM #7: Even pure Wisdom is a path up to the point of final Insight. This is why Shankara encouraged students to engage in Parisamkhyana Meditation.

APHORISM #8: Parisamshyana Meditation is not meditation in the sense of a level two practice. It is Knowledge to remove ignorance. However, it is what Paul Brunton calls "a short path" technique until such time as it has accomplished its work and there is no longer a doer engaged in a practice to achieve a particular desired result.