View a FREE sample

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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. How does Chodron suggest we cultivate bravery?
(a) Through aspirations.
(b) By trying new things.
(c) Through affirmations.
(d) Through conversations with spiritual teachers.

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

3. What hope does Chodron write that we should abandon?
(a) Hope of change.
(b) Hope of growth.
(c) Hope of earning love.
(d) Hope of fruition.

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

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

Short Answer Questions

1. Which does Chodron consider more emotionally challenging: loving-kindness or compassion?

2. What does the author claim that lojong slogans or the slogans of Atisha can help us do?

3. What are the three noble principles?

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

5. What is the final step of the formal practice of maitri?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

3. What image of maitri does Chodron use to explain the concept?

4. What are the stages of the formal practice of loving-kindness?

5. What are the stages of the formal practice of tonglen?

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

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

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

9. Why does the author include an anecdote about finding her boyfriend "passionately embracing another woman"?

10. What does "of the two witnesses, hold the principal one" mean?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 949 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample