Meditation May Boost Compassion Towards Others

As little as eight weeks of meditation training may be able to increase an individual's compassion for others, according to a recent article in the New York Times by Dr. David DeSteno. 

Dr. DeSteno conducted a study of individual's compassion towards other's in the face of suffering. He found that people demonstrated increased rates of compassion after they completed an eight week meditation course. His hypothesis is that "the increased compassion of meditators ..might stem directly from meditation’s ability to dissolve the artificial social distinctions — ethnicity, religion, ideology and the like — that divide us."

This hypothesis, according to Dr. DeSteno, is consistent with previously reported neuroscientific studies. "Recent findings by the neuroscientists Helen Weng, Richard Davidson and colleagues confirm that even relatively brief training in meditative techniques can alter neural functioning in brain areas associated with empathic understanding of others’ distress — areas whose responsiveness is also modulated by a person’s degree of felt associations with others."

To learn more read The Morality of Meditation at the New York Times.