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CHAPTER 1
THE ASIAN SAGES:
LAO-TZU, CONFUCIUS, AND BUDDHA
INSTRUCTIONS: Select the best answer according to the text.
TRUE/FALSE
1. Lao-tzu is a nickname that may mean Old Man.
2. Lao-tzu is credited with writing the Analects.
3. The literal meaning of Tao is power.
4. If one word characterizes the overall approach of the
ancient sages, it is humanism.
5. Confucius said that man can make the Tao great.
6. Although he was an effective teacher, Confucius was a
failure as a political reformer.
7. Confucius characterized the Tao in terms of a tension or
struggle that produced the Golden Stalemate.
8. According to Confucius, the only way to produce a stable,
harmonious society is by mastering and honoring li.
9. Jen is the central harmony or Golden Mean upon which
Confucian humanism rests.
10. The chun-tzu thinks of humanity, and the hsiao-jen thinks
of himself.
11. Ascetics turn away from pleasure and severely limit
all sensual appetites.
12. Buddha rejected asceticism.
13. Buddha s search for enlightenment ended under the
Bodhi tree.
14. Nirvana is a state of great pleasure and ecstasy.
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15. Bodhisattva means wandering monk.
16. Buddha died from eating something poisonous.
17. Buddha s teaching rests on the Four Supreme
Truths.
18. Psychologists do not use the word ego to mean the
same thing as Buddhists do.
19. Buddha s guidelines for living are known as the
Eightfold Path.
20. Buddha established two different schools of
Buddhism so that each type of soul may find
peace.
21. At the core of Buddha s doctrine is a primal sense of
satisfactoriness generated by the human condition.
22. Buddha identified three realities : egolessness,
suffering, impermanence.
23. Buddha s ultimate purpose was to provide happiness
in this life and salvation in the next.
24. According to Buddhist tradition, karma is the law of
causation.
MULTIPLE CHOICE
25. In Asian cultures, the _____ combines religious
inspiration with a love of wisdom.
a. sage
b. prophet
c. shaman
d. bodhisattva
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26. _____ is the name given to any philosophy that
emphasizes human welfare and dignity and belief
that human intelligence is capable of improving life.
a. Taoism
b. Buddhism
c. Humanism
d. Confucianism
27. Confucius is credited with writing the _____ .
a. Secret Wisdom
b. Tao te Ching
c. Analects
d. Yin Yang
28. Tao literally means _____ .
a. secret
b. way or path
c. wisdom of nature
d. insight
29. Lao-tzu _____ .
a. presented a philosophic system known as Taoism
b. struggled to express what cannot be trapped in
words, the underlying principle of the way all
things are
c. struggled to express the exact nature of the way
all things are
d. discovered the principle of yin yang
30. Lao-tzu is credited with writing the _____ .
a. Secret Wisdom
b. Analects
c. Tao te Ching
d. Yin Yang
31. By Lao-tzu s time, yin and yang were thought of
as _____ .
a. mutually exclusive forces, the presence of
one prevented by the action of the other
b. the two faces of the Great Mother
c. coexisting together, each being an expression of
the other
d. irrelevant, outdated concepts left over from
Taoism s Hindu origins
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32. In ancient Asian cosmology, _____ is passive, weak,
negative and dark.
a. ignorance
b. yin
c. yang
d. the Tao
33. In ancient Asian cosmology, _____ is active, strong,
positive, and light.
a. wisdom
b. yin
c. yang
d. the Tao
34. According to Taoist doctrine, _____ produces the good.
a. only the good heart
b. the bad
c. science
d. knowledge
35. According to Lao-tzu, the wise person is patient
when things seem to be going poorly because he or
she _____ .
a. knows how to direct events and can change
them at will
b. realizes that all conditions change
c. views life as a delusion
d. quickly loses the will to live
36. Lao-tzu preferred _____ to _____ as a means of
expressing his philosophy.
a. grand theories/simple statements
b. poetic expressions/complex systems
c. scientific precision/poetic expressions
d. yin/yang
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37. Lao-tzu _____ .
a. was deeply concerned with the need for
rational consistency to support his hierarchical
vision of being
b. rejected rational consistency, preferring instead
a hierarchical theory of being
c. was unconcerned with rational consistency
because he was concerned with a way of life
d. expressed a theory of being nearly identical
to Plato s
38. The Tao that can be told of _____ .
a. can be described with precision
b. is not the absolute Tao
c. was discovered by Lao-tzu
d. is the true Tao
39. The principle of _____ is named after a story by
Chuang-tzu that illustrates how the sage goes with
the flow of Tao.
a. the Monkey s Dilemma
b. Three Coconuts
c. Two Rafts in the River
d. Three in the Morning
40. _____ is the Taoist principle of inaction.
a. Wu wei
b. Tao-te
c. No-do
d. Te-ching
41. According to Lao-tzu, the problem with action is
that _____ .
a. it takes effort
b. it takes time
c. our own desires interfere with our intuition of the
Tao
d. not everyone is strong enough to get much done
42. The _____, or chung-yung, is central to Confucius s
philosophy .
a. way things are
b. way things ought to be
c. wise or superior person
d. Golden Mean
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43. In ancient Asian cosmology, yin and yang represent _____ .
a. Heaven and Earth
b. the two faces of the Great Mother
c. Earth and Heaven
d. rituals and rites
44. Chung-yung literally means _____.
a. harmony and virtue
b. centrality and universality
c. science
d. knowledge
45. In the Analects, Confucius confines the meaning of Tao
to _____ .
a. centrality and universality
b. the proper course of human conduct
c. te, or virtue
d. the path of the chung-yung
46. Traditionally, te meant _____
a. the lord s son
b. potency, the power to affect others without using
physical force
c. humanitarianism or general human virtue
d. Tao in action
47. Confucius believed that a harmonious society is
possible only when people master and honor _____ .
a. the hsiao-jen
b. jen
c. li
d. the Golden Thread
48. Jen is _____ .
a. the small or vulgar man
b. general human virtue
c. ceremony or ritual
d. the way of Earth
49. The _____ is the opposite of the chun-tzu.
a. hsiao-jen
b. tao-te
c. chun-yung
d. great or noble soul
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50. According to Confucius, by following _____ , we become
gracious and well mannered.
a. hsiao-jen
b. chun-yung
c. li
d. jen
51. Siddhartha s parents tried to protect him
from _____ .
a. women
b. false religious practices
c. knowledge of suffering
d. self-indulgence
52. One of the Four Signs was _____ .
a. a thunderbolt
b. a beggar
c. black crows circling a corn field
d. a sudden wind
53. Another of the Four Signs was _____ .
a. a horse dropping dead in the street
b. a body being prepared for cremation
c. losing a sandal
d. falling off a log
54. Siddhartha had only _____ to talk with about his
troubling questions.
a. his wife
b. his charioteer
c. a childhood friend
d. his cousin
55. Buddha rejected both self-indulgence and denial,
preferring instead _____ .
a. harmonic convergence
b. the Third Way
c. the Inner Path
d. the Middle Path
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56. Tiring of the search for enlightenment, Buddha
_____ .
a. entered a temple and prayed until he saw truth
b. sat under a fig tree and did not move until he
awakened
c. distracted himself with sweetmeats and music
until enlightenment sought him out
d. took his famous Ten-Year Excursion
57. Buddha s vision revealed that _____ .
a. suffering is good
b. all life is part of one continuous chain of being
c. the pursuit of truth is worthless
d. sooner or later everyone will be saved
58. Through diligent practice of meditation, Buddha reached
a state of bliss and utter detachment known as _____ .
a. grace
b. Theravada
c. Narayana
d. nirvana
59. A _____ is an enlightened being who chooses to
postpone his own supreme release in order to help
other conscious life forms find release.
a. sage
b. guru
c. bodhisattva
d. dharma
60. The first noble truth is that _____ .
a. no one can deny that suffering is the condition
of all existence
b. suffering comes to people for no reason
c. life is good if we are good, bad if we are bad
d. the ego-soul is god
61. The second noble truth is that _____ .
a. suffering comes to people for no reason
b. pride cannot be conquered
c. suffering comes to people because they are
self-centered
d. the choice of livelihood determines one s
destiny
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62. The Buddha taught that we suffer because _____ .
a. we are partial to ourselves
b. the great dharmas decree that we suffer
c. humans sinned against the Great Spirit-Being
d. underneath each takes delight in discomfort
63. The Buddha taught that release from suffering
comes from _____ .
a. learning to live among others without
resentment
b. change of viewpoint
c. self-denial and ascetic practices that cleanse
the spirit
d. none of these: The Buddha did not believe that
release from suffering is possible; he taught ways
of learning how to suffer without complaint
64. _____ comes from annihilation of the ego.
a. Piranha
b. Loss of self-respect
c. Nirvana
d. Zenyanna
65. Buddha identified three realities : _____ .
a. nature, spirit, and truth
b. the Fourfold Way, the Eightfold Path,
and the Four Noble Truths
c. karma, dharma, and rhamalama
d. egolessness, suffering, and impermanence
66. Buddha s ultimate purpose was to provide: _____ .
a. happiness and salvation
b. a way of thinking that could be personalized
to provide insight to each individual
c. therapeutic insights into the nature of human
suffering
d. an alternative to asceticism
67. According to Buddhist tradition, _____ is the law of
causation.
a. karma
b. dharma
c. pamma
d. nirvana
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68. According to Buddhist tradition, _____ is the law of
moral cause and effect.
a. karma
b. dharma
c. pamma
d. nirvana
69. The first step on Buddha s path to enlightenment is
to _____ .
a. see what s wrong
b. get into action
c. live right
d. speak only truth
70. Which of the following is NOT part of the Eightfold Path?
a. Right worship
b. Right purpose
c. Right meditation
d. Right effort
71. According to the Buddha, the Way _____ .
a. cannot be achieved by study
b. must be studied with great care
c. does not exist
d. exists only after we are enlightened
72. The Buddha founded _____ school(s) of Buddhism.
a. four
b. two
c. one
d. no
73. The Buddha explained _____ .
a. that the world is eternal
b. that the world is not eternal
c. the teachings of past masters
d. the origin of misery
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Chapter 1
THE ASIAN SAGES:
LAO-TZU, CONFUCIUS, AND BUDDHA
1. Discuss the relationship between the social conditions under
which Lao-tzu and Confucius lived and their philosophical
responses to those conditions. Contrast the fundamental differences
between their philosophies. *
2. Why did Lao-tzu express his philosophy in poetic form? What is
he trying to tell us or not tell us by writing poetically?
3. Compare and contrast Taoism with Stoicism (Chapter 7) in
terms of their responses to social uncertainty and chaos. As part of
your comparison, contrast Tao with the Logos. *
4. Discuss the Taoist doctrine of inaction, distinguishing between
inaction and doing something. Why is inaction recommended
over doing something ?
5. What is the relationship between jen and li in Confucianism? Be
sure to explain what jen and li are.
6. Compare and contrast the Tao with the Logos.
7. Compare and contrast the Confucian and Aristotelian
(Chapter 6) mean in terms of each philosopher s understanding of
virtue. *
8. Explain how Confucius uses the concepts of the chun-tzu and
the hsiao-jen to exemplify his notion of jen.
9. Compare the chun-tzu and the hsiao-jen to the overman and
herd man (Chapter 16). How are they alike? Different? *
10. What are the Four Noble Truths, and how do they lead to
happiness?
11. Write a reflective essay on the concept of unsatisfactoriness as it
relates to Buddhist teaching.
12. Explain the relationship between suffering and ego according to
Buddha. What is the cure for suffering according to Buddha? Is his
account adequate, or are there forms of suffering that Buddha s
approach cannot cure? Be specific and explain. *
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CHAPTER 1 ANSWERS