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

Short Answer Questions

1. What is the first stage of the formal practice of maitri?

2. How does Chondron describe our "fundamental energy"?

3. What did Albert Einstein claim was an illusion?

4. What is the third lord of materialism?

5. How does Chitta translate?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

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

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

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

6. What are the three lords of materialism?

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

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

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

10. Under what conditions does the author claim that people can "train" to be a warrior?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

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 2

What does the author describe as an in between place? Why is this important?

Essay Topic 3

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?

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This section contains 845 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample