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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What tendency is comfort orientation based on?
(a) Avoiding inconvenience.
(b) Being irresponsible.
(c) Hoping for the best.
(d) Overspending.

2. How long does Chodron say that cultivating equanimity takes?
(a) "Less time than it does to cultivate unhappiness."
(b) "As long as you make it."
(c) "At least until you die."
(d) "It will take less time if you start now."

3. What did the mother who wanted to help her heroin addicted son feel during her aspiration?
(a) Hopeful.
(b) Overwhelmed.
(c) Frustrated.
(d) Fearful.

4. How many near enemies of compassion are there?
(a) Three.
(b) Five.
(c) One.
(d) None.

5. Which of the following is one of the three kinds of laziness?
(a) Lack of sleep.
(b) Depression.
(c) Comfort orientation.
(d) Running late.

6. Which of the following does Chodron claim most of us are not satisfied to do?
(a) Create a career in spiritualist practice.
(b) Retreat from the world.
(c) Long for company.
(d) Hope for change.

7. What is strong determination?
(a) Our desire to feel joy.
(b) Our determination to be good people, and act responsibly in the world.
(c) A determination to respect "whatever life brings."
(d) A desire to enjoy "full personal responsibility for our own happiness."

8. What happens to equanimity when we can "dwell in the places that scare us"?
(a) It becomes part of our everyday life.
(b) It becomes unshakable.
(c) It decreases.
(d) It is something we no longer have to consider.

9. What is most important in doing good deeds?
(a) Respect.
(b) Being frank.
(c) Confidence.
(d) Attitude.

10. Why are students taught to bow to others and to objects in the Zen tradition?
(a) To demonstrate their devotion to others.
(b) To show respect.
(c) To show humility.
(d) To demonstrate their status.

11. Why can our good fortune be hard to miss?
(a) Because of its "ordinariness."
(b) Because it is easier to focus on negativity.
(c) Because it is not "our habitual human behavior."
(d) Because society pressures us to have so much that we focus on our lack.

12. What is the far enemy of joy?
(a) Sadness.
(b) Envy.
(c) Despair.
(d) Anger.

13. What is the gentlest method of reproach?
(a) To ask, "Have I ever done this before?"
(b) To ask, "Why am I here?"
(c) To ask, "Who really supports me?"
(d) To ask, "What do I want in my life?"

14. What is Chodron's tone in Chapter 15?
(a) Straightforward.
(b) Passionate.
(c) Hatful.
(d) Hurried.

15. Which of the following is a near enemy of compassion?
(a) Hope.
(b) Dreaming.
(c) Pity.
(d) Greed.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Chodron write about categorizing things into "for" and "against"?

2. Where did the Buddha teach groundlessness?

3. What does Chodron claim undermines our wakeful energy?

4. What can the six ways of compassionate living do?

5. What does Chodron write that her friend thought when he heard a woman screaming on the street?

(see the answer keys)

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