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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. In what year did the author of the book What the Buddah Taught write the work?
(a) 2001.
(b) 1959.
(c) 1983.
(d) 1973.

2. What is NOT a concern the author attributes to the process of natural selection?
(a) There should be more of a focus on the immediate pleasure than on the way it will soon dissipate.
(b) The pleasure associated with the goals should not last forever.
(c) Achieving the goals should bring pleasure.
(d) Aesthetic considerations.

3. Which group of people does the author say especially identified with the film he references within the chapter title "Take the Red Pill"?
(a) Western Buddhists.
(b) Tibetan Buddhists.
(c) Taoists.
(d) Cartesians.

4. The author states that natural selection does not want people to be happy, but instead wants them to be what?
(a) Compassionate.
(b) Tenacious.
(c) Healthy.
(d) Productive.

5. On what body process should first-timers focus when meditating?
(a) Bile.
(b) Phlegm.
(c) Breath.
(d) Blood.

6. What emotion does the author say he feels when he is getting ready for a public speaking engagement?
(a) Shame.
(b) Pride.
(c) Weakness.
(d) Anxiety.

7. What Rolling Stones song does the author say perfectly encapsulates the human condition from the Buddhist point of view?
(a) Gimme Shelter.
(b) Salt of the Earth.
(c) You Can't Always Get What You Want.
(d) I Can't Get No Satisfaction.

8. What does the acronym in the chapter title of Chapter 6 mean?
(a) Laugh Out Loud.
(b) Immaterial.
(c) Missing in Action.
(d) Not in my backyard.

9. What is the English translation of the word dukkha?
(a) Suffering.
(b) Pain.
(c) Peace.
(d) Kindness.

10. What is NOT listed among the traditional practices of Asian Buddhists not practiced by Western Buddhists?
(a) Belief in a variety of deities.
(b) Fixation on bodily fluids during meditative practice.
(c) Belief in reincarnation.
(d) Meditation.

11. What is the title of Chapter 2 of Buddhism is True?
(a) When Are Feelings Illusions?.
(b) Paradoxes of Meditation.
(c) The Alleged Nonexistence of Your Self.
(d) Taking the Red Pill.

12. Though the author admits that there are paradoxes within Buddhism, he says that there are also paradoxes within which branch of science?
(a) Physics.
(b) Forensics.
(c) Geology.
(d) Biology.

13. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter associated with what element?
(a) Pleasure and the anticipation of pleasure.
(b) Satiation.
(c) Sleep.
(d) Hunger and the relief of hunger.

14. The Buddah lived and taught how many years ago?
(a) 700.
(b) 3,500.
(c) 1,200.
(d) 2,500.

15. With what Buddhist tradition is Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche associated?
(a) The Vippassana Buddhist tradition.
(b) The school of tranquility and serenity.
(c) The Tibetan Buddhist tradition.
(d) The Zen Buddhist tradition.

Short Answer Questions

1. What adjective does the author apply to the phenomenon of road rage?

2. The idea within vipassana meditation is to see the true nature of what?

3. On what object does the author say people should place themselves during meditation?

4. The author states that "coherence of motivation, though a desirable quality in a friend or collaborator, isn't by itself" (82) what?

5. The Buddha said that engagement is the product of a what?

(see the answer keys)

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