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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 many steps does the aspiration practice for compassion have?

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

3. Why does the author encourage readers to question the "strategies of the ego"?

4. Which answer completes the following quote? "If this process of clear seeing isn't based on self-compassion it will become a process of ______."

5. What does the author argue that we do to sow the seeds of our own suffering?

Short Essay Questions

1. What are the three lords of materialism?

2. What is tonglen?

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

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

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

6. What is bodhichitta?

7. What are the lojong teachings?

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

9. What does Chodron write is the "foundation" of bodhichitta training?

10. What does the slogan "train in three difficulties" mean?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What does Chodron mean when she says to do no harm? Why does she argue that this is beneficial? What makes it difficult?

Essay Topic 2

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?

Essay Topic 3

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

(see the answer keys)

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