Although it may be hard to believe, squares A
and B below are exactly the same color!

The reason A looks darker than B is because our brain is doing something that is often helpful - making assumptions based on the surrounding context. Because of this, we don't see squares A & B as they truly are. Our 'perception' is contaminated.

We continue behaviors that cause stress and unhappiness by a similar misperception.
Not because we are bad or defective, but simply because the context of our
experience distortes what is right in front of us,
mistaking actions that cause stress with actions that cause happiness.

In order to solve this misperception, we must have skills that either change or
turn down the volume of the surrounding context to see what is really there.

Mindfulness cultivates a focused and dependable mind, enabling us to turn down
the volume of distracting context and see clearly.

Press the KNOW button in the image above and
watch the
background fade, leaving only the squares .

(No, the squares do not change color, but it looks that way.

To see for yourself, you can print the original image
and then just cut out squares A and B. It will blow your mind!)

Once we see for ourselves what is really there, we KNOW. Even when we see the original image again, we know what is true about it. In this way, mindfulness brings us into direct experience with things as they really are, and once we see clearly that actions that cause stress cause stress, and not happiness, we simply stop them.

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