4.4 years ago, I wrote a book review of Altered Traits, a book about the science of meditation. At the time, I was a noob. I hadn't hit any, but hadn't hit any important checkpoints yet. Since then, I gone deep down the rabbit hole. In this post, I will review whether the claims in my original post are consistent with my current lived experience.

The first thing the authors do is confirm that a compassionate attitude actually increases altruistic behavior. It does.

While this may be true, I think the reverse is more important. Altruistic behavior increases compassion. More generally, acting non-compassionately is an obstacle to insight. Insight then increases compassion, after you have removed the blocks.

Compassion increases joy and happiness too.

Yes, again with qualifiers. For example, there are many mental states that feel better than joy and happiness. "Compassion makes you [...]

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.