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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. How does Chondron describe our "fundamental energy"?
(a) As "essentially good."
(b) As "loving and generous at its very core."
(c) As "unpredictable, like a leaf on the wind."
(d) As "tender, wholesome and fresh."

2. Who do we first practice Maitri on?
(a) Our loved ones.
(b) Ourselves.
(c) Animals.
(d) Our enemies.

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

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

5. Where does the title of the book come from?
(a) A sacred scripture.
(b) A quote from Ghandi.
(c) A quote between a teacher and student.
(d) Buddha.

6. What is the traditional aspiration used in formal maitri training?
(a) "May I create joy in my own life, and rejoice in the happiness that I see in the lives of others."
(b) "My life and my joy is my responsibility."
(c) "May I and others enjoy happiness and the root of happiness."
(d) "There are no problems that I must solve."

7. Where did Atisha Dipankara take the bodhichitta teachings?
(a) From India to Tibet.
(b) From China to India.
(c) From India to Latin America.
(d) From Tibet to Japan.

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

9. What does Chodron claim is the most difficult step in any practice?
(a) "Having the guts to experiment."
(b) "Aknowledging that we are all churned up."
(c) "Listening to a teacher, and admitting that we do not know our own way."
(d) "Allowing ourselves to begin something new."

10. What does the author compare with the rawness of a broken heart?
(a) Meditation.
(b) Bodhichitta.
(c) Yoga.
(d) Nirvana.

11. What is the first stage of the formal practice of maitri?
(a) Decide that we will do no harm.
(b) Standing in the first yoga position.
(c) Engendering loving-kindness for ourselves.
(d) Closing our eyes, and taking a deep breath to relax the body.

12. Why does Chodron work with aspirations?
(a) "The best way to serve ourselves is to love and care for others."
(b) "Aspirations are an ancient tradition, created by true spiritual leaders."
(c) "We may not be able to change our circumstances, but we can think differently always."
(d) "Aspirations keep us on track when our minds seem to want to run wild."

13. What does the author argue that we do to sow the seeds of our own suffering?
(a) "Most of us focus our energies on problems."
(b) "Most of us keep strengthening our negative habits."
(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."

14. What does Chodron claim we cultivate through making aspirations?
(a) Worldly ambition.
(b) Hope.
(c) Good health.
(d) Bravery.

15. What does Chodron warn that we become habituated to doing?
(a) "As we look for comfort, we slowly slip into addictive behaviors that can destroy our lives."
(b) "Losing ourselves more and more, not even as we consider ourselves separate from others, but because we do this."
(c) "Reaching for something to ease the edginess of the moment."
(d) "By trying to please others, we can gain relief from the pressures we create for ourselves, but become so used to it that we lose our sense of what we want in life."

Short Answer Questions

1. What does the author call "those who train wholeheartedly in awakening unconditional and relative bodhichitta"?

2. What relationship does a Buddhist teaching claim that we have had with all others?

3. What does the author compare to an elderly couple living in a protected community in Florida?

4. What does tonglen literally mean?

5. What did Albert Einstein claim was an illusion?

(see the answer keys)

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