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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What does Chodron believe that the teaching of the three marks of existence can motivate us to do?
(a) "Understand the nature of love."
(b) "Accept spiritual teachings."
(c) "Meditate well from the moment we begin."
(d) "Stop struggling against the nature of reality."

2. What is the first lord of materialism?
(a) Sensuality.
(b) Personal style.
(c) Form.
(d) Function.

3. What is the traditional aspiration used in formal maitri training?
(a) "My life and my joy is my responsibility."
(b) "May I create joy in my own life, and rejoice in the happiness that I see in the lives of others."
(c) "May I and others enjoy happiness and the root of happiness."
(d) "There are no problems that I must solve."

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

5. What does the author claim is the gift of understanding that uncertainty is part of life?
(a) Knowing that nothing can be counted on saves us from disappointment.
(b) Knowing that even Nirvana is uncertain makes it all the more exciting for believers.
(c) Not believing that others can avioid uncertainty.
(d) Understanding that certainty is not necessary to find happiness.

Short Answer Questions

1. What is the final step of the formal practice of maitri?

2. What is the fifth step in the formal practice of maitri?

3. What is maitri called in the Shamhala teaching?

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

5. The author relates the story of a woman who found herself surrounded by people threatening to throw stones. What did she feel in that moment?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. Why does Chodron mention a walled, protected community in Florida?

3. What is bodhichitta?

4. What does Chodron compare to "tapping into a spring of living water that has been temporarily encased in solid rock"?

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

6. What do the vajrayana Buddhists believe about emotions?

7. What does "of the two witnesses, hold the principal one" mean?

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

9. What do Martin Luther King and Mother Teresa have in common, according to Chodron?

10. What are the three lords of materialism?

(see the answer keys)

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