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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. According to Hinduism who has the spiritual ideas of infinite being, infinite awareness, and infinite bliss?
(a) Only philosophers can possess that information.
(b) Only the oldest gurus understand these things.
(c) Only one individual per lifetime has this knowledge.
(d) All humans already posses these things but until a certain point they remain hidden.

2. How does Confucianism conflict with the yogi idea of finding God?
(a) Confucius said finding God was impossible unless one became a hermit.
(b) Confucius put the individual squarely in the middle of human contact to perfect a social order.
(c) Confucius taught that only through self analysis could one ever find God.
(d) Confucius believed that it takes two or three people meditating together to find God.

3. What is the Chinese concept of ch'i?
(a) Herbal tea remedies
(b) Spirituality
(c) Vital energy
(d) Clearing the mind

4. What does the first signpost of the Path of Renunciation which reads "the community" offer the individual?
(a) It offers more lasting value than the self-centered desires of human nature.
(b) It offers political opportunity to gain more personal power.
(c) It offers a better way to get what you want.
(d) It offers membership in a larger family.

5. What did Confucius believe about the authority of rulers?
(a) It is a necessary part of living.
(b) It can only be maintained by force.
(c) It must be earned.
(d) It comes through the bloodlines.

6. What is the follower of wu wei said to be able to do?
(a) Speak without speaking
(b) Work without working
(c) Dream without dreaming
(d) Think without thinking

7. What Huston Smith says the book is not.
(a) A book on comparative religions
(b) A guide to base values of significant religions
(c) A book to give a specific descriptions of world religions
(d) A balanced account of the subjects of the book

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

9. What do (1) the brahmin, or seer; (2) the kshatriya, or administrator; (3) the vaishya, or producer; and (4) the shudra, or servant represent?
(a) The highest forms of yoga
(b) The stations of life
(c) The levels of education
(d) The divisions of monks

10. How does the development of Buddhism parallel that of all major world religions?
(a) It went into immediate decline after the death of the Buddha.
(b) Hardly a century after the death of the Buddha it began to show signs of schism.
(c) It saw no period of hierarchical struggle.
(d) It began to wage war with non-believers.

11. What is the central characteristic of the Sikh?
(a) The Sikh seeks unity with God through love.
(b) The Sikh seeks unity with God through money.
(c) The Sikh seeks unity with God through hard work.
(d) The Sikh seeks unity with God through self denial.

12. What did religious Taoism accommodate that other religions in China did not?
(a) T'ai ch'i
(b) Feng Shui
(c) Fortune telling, soothsaying, shamans, and faith healers
(d) Religious garments

13. How might the rise of Buddhism be compared to the Protestant Reformation?
(a) It was a reaction to the excesses of the Hinduism of the day.
(b) It started by Siddhartha nailing theses to a temple door.
(c) It started because people could not read.
(d) It started as a rebellion against a human head of religion.

14. What is the ultimate reality of Taoism?
(a) That motherhood is the essence of life
(b) That everything is nothing
(c) That which flows is permanent
(d) That which is above all, behind all, and beneath all

15. How did Confucius reject both the Realists and the Mohists?
(a) The first was too formal and the latter was too undefined
(b) The first was too clumsy and external and the latter was too utopian
(c) The first was too old and the latter was too innovative
(d) The first was status quo and the latter was experimental

Short Answer Questions

1. Where was Siddhartha sitting as he gained enlightenment?

2. How does Hinduism see life?

3. What form of Buddhism flourishes in Japan?

4. What is dharma?

5. What is the Zen koan?

(see the answer keys)

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