View a FREE sample

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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What does the author recommend that we do with our sorrow?
(a) Try to change it.
(b) Sit with it.
(c) Fully focus on it in order to verbalize it.
(d) Master it in order to eliminate it.

2. What does the author experience after finding her boyfriend "passionately embracing" another woman?
(a) A deep sadness stemming from her unmet need to be loved.
(b) An inability to release her own emotional energy.
(c) The horror of causing a tragedy after the rush of anger was released.
(d) Absolute disgust with another human being.

3. What are the four limitless qualities?
(a) Material things, ideas, barriers of the self, and barriers of others.
(b) Loving-kindness, compassion, joy, and equanimity.
(c) Hope, generosity, love, and relaxation.
(d) Change, Suffering, discomfort, and lack.

4. How many stages are in the formal practice of tonglen?
(a) Four.
(b) Five.
(c) Three.
(d) Two.

5. What does Chodron claim is the most difficult step in any practice?
(a) "Listening to a teacher, and admitting that we do not know our own way."
(b) "Allowing ourselves to begin something new."
(c) "Aknowledging that we are all churned up."
(d) "Having the guts to experiment."

6. Which answer completes the following quote? "If this process of clear seeing isn't based on self-compassion it will become a process of ______."
(a) Losing patience.
(b) Increased tension.
(c) Heartbreak.
(d) Self-aggression.

7. What are the lojong teachings for?
(a) Training the mind.
(b) Seeking spiritual guidance.
(c) Opening the heart.
(d) Finding a good feeling.

8. What does the author claim that bodhichitta training unlocks?
(a) Our innate ability to relax.
(b) Our feeling of happiness.
(c) The four limitless qualities.
(d) Our own deepest needs.

9. Who did Atisha take with him from India to Tibet?
(a) His own spiritual teacher.
(b) The most annoying person he knew.
(c) His sick brother.
(d) His mother.

10. What does the author claim that lojong slogans or the slogans of Atisha can help us do?
(a) Learn to meditate in less time than any other method.
(b) Remember wisdom at emotional moments.
(c) Understand the nature of love.
(d) Become a true warrior.

11. How many steps does the aspiration practice for compassion have?
(a) Four.
(b) Five.
(c) Three.
(d) Seven.

12. What does Chodron write we cannot do without loving-kindness for ourselves?
(a) We cannot achieve our optimum physical health.
(b) It is difficult, "if not impossible," to love others.
(c) We cannot be happy, and enjoy our own good fortune.
(d) We cannot give up control, or "truly understand" that the world is full of love.

13. What does the author call "those who train wholeheartedly in awakening unconditional and relative bodhichitta"?
(a) Winners.
(b) Warriors.
(c) Saints.
(d) True yogis.

14. In practicing compassion, who is the first person we aspire to feel compassion for?
(a) Our families.
(b) Ourselves.
(c) People we do not know.
(d) Our enemies.

15. What are the three lords of materialism?
(a) Ways we maintain an "illusion of security."
(b) Obstacles to achieving Nirvana.
(c) An attachment to status and material goods.
(d) Sins.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does the author claim Martin Luther King is an example of?

2. What hope does Chodron write that we should abandon?

3. What does the author cite Trungpa RInpoche as teaching?

4. What did Albert Einstein claim was an illusion?

5. What is the compassionate aspiration that the author begins with as she begins to teach?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 646 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample