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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Which of the two witnesses does Chodron say we should hold?
(a) "The principal one."
(b) "The second."
(c) "The nearest."
(d) "The first."

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

3. What does the author claim Martin Luther King is an example of?
(a) A truly centered person.
(b) A person who put love first.
(c) A master warrior.
(d) A true teacher.

4. How does the author claim that aspirations and affirmations differ?
(a) Chodron argues that affirmations and aspirations can be used interchangeably in meditation.
(b) Chodron writes that in one we try to convince ourselves of something, and in the other we aim to open our hearts.
(c) Chodron claims that they are not different.
(d) Chodron claims that aspirations have long been used by Buddhists, but affiirmations have been scientifically studied and documented more.

5. 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) Relationships always take hard work, and we certainly are not predisposed to live easily with others.
(c) Though relationships are unnatural, and love does not always flow freely, we can nourish these sentiments.
(d) All beings are predisposed to waking up and reaching out to others.

Short Answer Questions

1. Where did Atisha Dipankara take the bodhichitta teachings?

2. What are the three lords of materialism?

3. Why does the author encourage readers to question the "strategies of the ego"?

4. Which of the following does the author warn that meditation can become when meditation practitioners do not pay attention to their negative emotions?

5. What does tonglen literally mean?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why does Pema Chodron argue that most of us sow the seeds of our own suffering?

2. Why does Chodron describe the experience of a young woman who was in a foreign country, surrounded by people throwing stones at her?

3. What is the role of interconnectedness in the kind of training that Chodron proposes?

4. What ways does Chodron write that meditation can be misused?

5. What does the slogan "train in three difficulties" mean?

6. Why does Chodron mention a walled, protected community in Florida?

7. What are the qualities of maitri that are cultivated when we meditate?

8. What are the three principles that the Buddha taught to be characteristic of human existence?

9. What are the four limitless qualities?

10. What does the Buddhist teaching tell us that all other beings have been over the course of many lifetimes?

(see the answer keys)

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