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

Multiple Choice Questions

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

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

3. What does Chodron write we cannot do without loving-kindness for ourselves?
(a) It is difficult, "if not impossible," to love others.
(b) We cannot give up control, or "truly understand" that the world is full of love.
(c) We cannot be happy, and enjoy our own good fortune.
(d) We cannot achieve our optimum physical health.

4. What relationship does Chodron claim we are predisposed to have with others?
(a) Just as we connect with our caretakers in infancy, we would naturally connect with others if we remained egoless, but this is lost in early childhood.
(b) Though relationships are unnatural, and love does not always flow freely, we can nourish these sentiments.
(c) Relationships always take hard work, and we certainly are not predisposed to live easily with others.
(d) All beings are predisposed to waking up and reaching out to others.

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

6. What does the author claim that sitting meditation cultivates?
(a) Loving-kindness.
(b) Body aches.
(c) Fear.
(d) Freedom from emotion.

7. How does Bodhi translate?
(a) As dream, hope, and illusion.
(b) As effort or work.
(c) As health.
(d) Awake, enlightened, or completely open.

8. What does the author cite Trungpa RInpoche as teaching?
(a) "Everything has meaning."
(b) "Anger is natural, but not helpful."
(c) "There is no cure for hot and cold."
(d) "Life is always best when you try to look on the bright side."

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

10. What are the three noble principles?
(a) Good in the beginning, good in the middle, good in the end.
(b) Love, hope, and generosity.
(c) Confess your faults, move toward your fears, and release your expectations.
(d) Meditate, exercise, and rest.

11. What is the second of the three lords of materialism?
(a) The lord of greed.
(b) The lord of speech.
(c) The lord of work.
(d) The lord of competition.

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

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

14. Which of the following does the author warn that meditation can become when meditation practitioners do not pay attention to their negative emotions?
(a) Wasted time.
(b) Repression.
(c) Hurtful.
(d) Selfish.

15. What is the final step of the formal practice of maitri?
(a) Listening to our heart in total silence.
(b) Understanding that our own perspective is limited.
(c) Teaching others what we have learned.
(d) Expanding our loving kindness to all others.

Short Answer Questions

1. Where does the title of the book come from?

2. How does Chitta translate?

3. Who did Atisha take with him from India to Tibet?

4. Why does Chodron work with aspirations?

5. What is the first stage of the formal practice of maitri?

(see the answer keys)

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