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

2. What does Chodron argue happens when we harm others?
(a) We only feel momentary relief from our own struggle.
(b) We receive bad karma.
(c) We see ourselves in a negative light.
(d) We also harm ourselves.

3. What does Chodron claim is our relationship to reaching out to others?
(a) She argues that there is no point in trying to do this.
(b) She writes that we can do it only with great effort.
(c) She claims that this is always hard work, and never natural for us.
(d) She writes that this is our natural inclination.

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

5. What does the author claim "cannot proliferate" without our thoughts?
(a) Poor relationships.
(b) Misunderstandings.
(c) Emotions.
(d) The humiliation of past mistakes.

Short Answer Questions

1. What are the lojong teachings for?

2. What three difficulties does the slogan "train in three difficulties" encourage?

3. According to Chodron, what happens when we consciously try to fix faults in ourselves?

4. What did the nineteenth century yogi Patrul Rinpiche suggest we do to train in compassion?

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

Short Essay Questions

1. What do Martin Luther King and Mother Teresa have in common, according to Chodron?

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

3. What are the three lords of materialism?

4. What aspiration is used in the practice of loving-kindness?

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

6. According to Chodron, what is our relationship with enlightenment?

7. Chodron asserts that there are two options in life. The first is "to grow up and relate to life directly." What is the second?

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

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

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

(see the answer keys)

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