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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What does the author experience after finding her boyfriend "passionately embracing" another woman?
(a) A deep sadness stemming from her unmet need to be loved.
(b) The horror of causing a tragedy after the rush of anger was released.
(c) Absolute disgust with another human being.
(d) An inability to release her own emotional energy.

2. Who taught that there are three principal characteristics of human existence?
(a) Mother Teresa.
(b) Buddha.
(c) Martin Luther King.
(d) Chodron.

3. What are the four qualities of maitri?
(a) Steadfastness, clear seeing, experiencing our emotional distress, and attention to the present moment..
(b) Our innate talents, meditation, generosity, and kindness.
(c) Hope, relaxation, aspiration, and generosity.
(d) Frivolity, materialism, self-absorption, and disinterest in others.

4. What is the synonym for sitting mediation used by Chodron?
(a) Relaxed meditation.
(b) Easy meditation.
(c) Classic relaxation and meditation.
(d) Mindfulness-awareness practice.

5. What does the author argue that we do to sow the seeds of our own suffering?
(a) "Most of us believe that we are separate from others, and seek only our own good."
(b) "Most of us focus our energies on problems."
(c) "Most of us keep strengthening our negative habits."
(d) "Most of us fail to notice that the world is full of love."

6. How does the author characterize meditation?
(a) As a great way to increase productivity,
(b) As difficult but rewarding.
(c) As the only path to a life free from suffering.
(d) As simple and fun.

7. What is Maitri?
(a) A Tibetan term for hope.
(b) Acceptance of ourselves.
(c) Full relaxation.
(d) Deep breath.

8. Which answer completes the following quote? "If this process of clear seeing isn't based on self-compassion it will become a process of ______."
(a) Losing patience.
(b) Self-aggression.
(c) Heartbreak.
(d) Increased tension.

9. What are the three lords of materialism?
(a) An attachment to status and material goods.
(b) Obstacles to achieving Nirvana.
(c) Ways we maintain an "illusion of security."
(d) Sins.

10. What helps teach us the four qualities of maitri?
(a) Sitting meditation.
(b) Lessons from our past experience.
(c) Hurt.
(d) Anger.

11. Which of the two witnesses does Chodron say we should hold?
(a) "The nearest."
(b) "The second."
(c) "The first."
(d) "The principal one."

12. What are the three characteristics of human existence?
(a) Love, hope, and peace.
(b) Impermanence, egolessness, and suffering.
(c) Mediocrity, disinterest, and distraction.
(d) Change, adaptation, and unsatisfied expectations.

13. What is the "foundation" of bodhichitta training?
(a) Generosity.
(b) Love.
(c) Meditation.
(d) Teaching.

14. What does Chodron claim is our relationship to reaching out to others?
(a) She writes that we can do it only with great effort.
(b) She claims that this is always hard work, and never natural for us.
(c) She argues that there is no point in trying to do this.
(d) She writes that this is our natural inclination.

15. What made Geshe Chekawa interested in publicizing the lojong slogans?
(a) The urging of his own spiritual teacher.
(b) Learning how much money he could make from students.
(c) Seeing their effect on his brother.
(d) Hearing that it cured a man from an incurable illness.

Short Answer Questions

1. What are the four limitless qualities?

2. What does the author claim that sitting meditation cultivates?

3. According to Chodron, what two things do all those who set out on this path discover that we all have?

4. What does Chodron claim is the most difficult step in any practice?

5. Which of the following does the author warn that meditation can become when meditation practitioners do not pay attention to their negative emotions?

(see the answer keys)

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