Quiz 1: Hearer’s grounds and paths

Sonam Gyatso the Third Dalai Lama
His Holiness the Third Dalai Lama (Photo by Wikimedia)

Part of a series of teachings on the text A Brief Presentation of the Grounds and Paths of the Perfection Vehicle, Essence of the Ocean of Profound Meaning by Jetsun Lobsang Dadrin (1867-1937). The questions for a quiz on the Fundamental Vehicle portion of the teachings.

  1. What are the differences between the path of Fundamental Vehicle practitioners and those on the path of bodhisattvas?
  2. Explain Nagarjuna’s verse: “All [phenomena] are real, unreal, real and unreal, and not real or unreal. This is what Buddha taught.”
  3. Why did the Buddha teach those four positions?
  4. What is the relationship between the eight types of Fundamental Vehicle aryas and the five Fundamental Vehicle paths?
  5. What is the relationship between the eight Fundamental Vehicle grounds and the five Fundamental Vehicle paths?
  6. What is the demarcation of entering each of the five Fundamental Vehicle paths?
  7. Make an outline of all the types of exalted wisdom of the Fundamental Vehicle path of seeing and describe what each is or does.
  8. Make an outline of all the types of exalted wisdom of the Fundamental Vehicle path of meditation and describe what each is or does.
  9. How are nirvana with remainder and without remainder explained in the common approach? In which order do they occur and why?
  10. Explain the ten points by which Asanga explained the three characteristics and how does meditating on those points affect your mind?
Venerable Thubten Chodron

Venerable Chodron emphasizes the practical application of Buddha’s teachings in our daily lives and is especially skilled at explaining them in ways easily understood and practiced by Westerners. She is well known for her warm, humorous, and lucid teachings. She was ordained as a Buddhist nun in 1977 by Kyabje Ling Rinpoche in Dharamsala, India, and in 1986 she received bhikshuni (full) ordination in Taiwan. Read her full bio.

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