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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What is dharma?
(a) An obstacle to reaching nirvana
(b) The Buddhist equivalent of karma
(c) A group of monks
(d) The means of crossing the river of ignorance

2. What is the main departure of Tibetan Buddhism?
(a) It enables achieving nirvana within a single lifetime.
(b) Doing away with monks' robes
(c) Prayer wheels and magic bells
(d) No begging for food

3. How many senses are involved in the Tao concept of power?
(a) Six
(b) Two
(c) Four
(d) Three

4. What is the purpose of the Tao senses?
(a) Waking up to reality
(b) Making judgments
(c) Making an honest living
(d) Perfecting the te or power as it vitalizes the human being

5. What is the Taoist outlook on good and evil?
(a) They have nothing to do with yin/yang.
(b) They are representations of heaven and earth.
(c) They are one and the same thing.
(d) They are not opposites but revolve around each other.

6. What did the Buddha think about religious rituals?
(a) He invented new ones for his day.
(b) He ridiculed rites as mere superstitions.
(c) He thought they had been neglected.
(d) He taught they were necessary exercises.

7. What seems to be the appeal bhakti yoga?
(a) Its universality that may be applied to any religion.
(b) Its ease and comfort of practice.
(c) Its many different ways to identify oneself.
(d) Its humanness rather than a more esoteric approach to religion.

8. What happened to Confucius texts?
(a) They became mandatory disciplines for Chinese government officials.
(b) They were kept secret for 1,000 years.
(c) They were lost and handed down only verbally.
(d) They were destroyed by Kublai Khan.

9. How does the yogi eliminate distractions of the mind during raja yoga?
(a) The yogi puts cotton in his ears.
(b) The yogi lies flat of his back.
(c) The yogi concentrates on one thing to the exclusion of all others.
(d) The yogi concentrates on reading.

10. How did the Taoist church devise a way of harnessing higher power for human benefit?
(a) By opening schools for magicians
(b) By perfecting astrology
(c) By organizing religious retreats
(d) By assuming the reality of magical intervention

11. What is the tanha?
(a) Loosely translated, it is religious education.
(b) Loosely translated, it is the fear of death.
(c) Loosely translated, it is human desire.
(d) Loosely translated, it is suffering.

12. What was transformed into the diamond scepter of Buddhism?
(a) The temporal and spiritual authority of the Dalai Lama
(b) Converting sounds into holy formulas
(c) Mandalas which offer visual icons
(d) The thunderbolt of Indra

13. How do Hindus tend to look at Sikhs?
(a) Hindus tend to look at Sikhs as morally superior.
(b) Hindus tend to look at Sikhs as lost sould.
(c) Hindus tend to look at Sikhs as wayward Hindus.
(d) Hindus tend to look at Sikhs as beggars.

14. How does Hinduism see life?
(a) As the main source of suffering
(b) On a continuum that moves naturally through all the stages
(c) As a way to stay young
(d) As something to be ignored

15. What kind of people are suited to practice Jnana yoga ?
(a) Those who have a spiritual bent and are highly reflective in their thought.
(b) Those who are too weak to do heavy exercise.
(c) Those who want to increase their circulation.
(d) Those who already know everything there is to know.

Short Answer Questions

1. What is the Hindu attitude toward other religions?

2. How has the Western mind often viewed the Path of Renunciation?

3. How does Sri Ramakrishna illustrate the experience all the great world religions?

4. How does the development of Buddhism parallel that of all major world religions?

5. What physical exercise was developed by Taoists?

(see the answer keys)

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