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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. After Stanford, where does the author accept a teaching position?

2. What does Dan have to keep fighting off?

3. Why does Dan have to rest?

4. What is the best definition for the Hawaiian word "kahuna?"

5. What has bothered Dan since the surfboard incident?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is Dan's ultimate conclusion about his time in India?

2. How has Mama Chia been healing Dan and what do you think of her method?

3. What is the island of Molokai and why is it appropriate that Dan wash up on its shore?

4. For what is Dan searching in India and why does he choose India?

5. Dan says he would trade enlightenment for one glass of "pure, cool, quenching water." What do you think this says about the human condition?

6. What does Dan say about death and how do you think he will overcome his feelings about it?

7. Dan remembers that Ruth wrote that the experience he is on is a question of "trust and faith." Do you believe this is true?

8. What do you think about what Mama Chia says about suffering?

9. Why is Dan depressed on his honeymoon?

10. Chapter four opens with what quote and what do you think it means?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

When Dan has a stopover in Hawaii, he decides to search for a woman about whom Socrates told him. Discuss the following:

How likely is it that Dan will find the woman for whom he is searching in a city of several hundred thousand (at that time)people? Do you think the fact that he finds her is miraculous or coincidental?

Dan might say his finding Ruth Johnson is not coincidental but rather serendipitous or perhaps meant to be. Discuss this idea.

What does it say about Dan or Dan's situation that he even attempts such a daunting task as finding a woman whose name, age, place of work or home is unknown in a city the size of Honolulu?

Essay Topic 2

Besides being a retired banker, Mama Chia is also a midwife, who is busy bringing a new life into the world while Dan is recuperating from exposure and dehydration. Discuss one of the following:

What are the parallels between Dan's surfboard experience and Mama Chia bringing a new baby into the world?

Discuss the seeming paradox that Mama Chia works for and retires from a bank and is also a shaman and midwife.

What do you think Dan needs to birth?

Essay Topic 3

While Dan is meditating, he realizes he must accept what is rather than cling to illusions. Discuss the following:

To what sort of illusions do you think Dan is clinging?

Can being in denial (or clinging to illusions) sometimes be a good thing?

If Dan (or anyone) accepts what is, then how are they motivated to change for the better?

(see the answer keys)

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