Being compassionate helps me to be a more peaceful, happy person.

Watch what happens in the four seconds after somebody cuts across you at a roundabout. A story arrives instantly — that they are selfish, that they did it at you — and the body issues adrenaline to match it.

Compassion mostly works upstream of that. Not forgiving the driver afterwards, but never quite building the case in the first place. He might be late for something awful. You will never know, and the not-knowing is what lets it drop.

The peace isn't a reward for being good. It is what's left over when you stop issuing prosecutions all day.