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This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through Chapters 7-9.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Which of the following does Chodron recommend?
(a) Do not expect applause.
(b) Remember only positive moments from the past.
(c) Relax slowly into meditation, and it will be less strenuous on your body.
(d) Do not eat food that will make your mind race.

2. Why does the author encourage readers to question the "strategies of the ego"?
(a) To connect to the Superego.
(b) To eventually change our behavior.
(c) To increase the hope in our lives.
(d) To let our guard down and better understand others.

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

4. What is the main point of the formal practice of maitri?
(a) To withdraw from the noise of our daily lives.
(b) To uncover the ability to love without bias.
(c) To give up our independence to join a community.
(d) To love freely and ask nothing in return.

5. What did the nineteenth century yogi Patrul Rinpiche suggest we do to train in compassion?
(a) Try not to hurt others, but do not go out of your way to give when there is no hope of them being kind.
(b) Imagine beings in torment, and put yourself in their place.
(c) Understand that your problems are not the only ones in the world, and try to help those who are less fortunate.
(d) Actively listen to others, and imagine how they must feel.

Short Answer Questions

1. What is the third lord of materialism?

2. What does the author experience after finding her boyfriend "passionately embracing" another woman?

3. What is the "foundation" of bodhichitta training?

4. What is the compassionate aspiration that the author begins with as she begins to teach?

5. How many steps does the aspiration practice for compassion have?

(see the answer key)

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