View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What are the lojong teachings for?

2. How many stages does the formal practice of maitri have?

3. What does Chodron believe that the teaching of the three marks of existence can motivate us to do?

4. What is maitri called in the Shamhala teaching?

5. What is the fifth step in the formal practice of maitri?

Short Essay Questions

1. What are the lojong teachings?

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

3. What is bodhichitta?

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

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

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

7. What is tonglen?

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

9. What do the vajrayana Buddhists believe about emotions?

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What image of Buddhism does Chodron present to the reader? What does she write about the Buddha? What does she write about different kinds of Buddhism?

Essay Topic 2

In The Places That Scare You, what do the terms maitri and tonglen mean? How does Chodron write that these are these cultivated?

Essay Topic 3

For Chodron, what role do spiritual leaders that are mentioned throughout the text have? What importance does she give spiritual teachers in general? How does she characterize their relationships with their students? According to Chodron, what responsibilities do students have?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 864 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample