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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. How does Chitta translate?

2. What is Maitri?

3. What does tonglen literally mean?

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

5. What does the author compare to an elderly couple living in a protected community in Florida?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. What are the lojong teachings?

3. How did the nineteenth century yogi Patrul Rinpoche suggest arousing compassion?

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

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

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

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

8. What does Chodron compare to "tapping into a spring of living water that has been temporarily encased in solid rock"?

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

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

For Chodron, what are the four limitless qualities? What are their near and far enemies?

Essay Topic 2

What does the author compare our fears in life to? What analogy does she make? Do you think this is an effective analogy? Why or why not?

Essay Topic 3

What is groundlessness for Chodron? Why is this important?

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