A mid gray color surrounded by black.
Same mid gray color, surrounded by white.

The mid gray color is the same in both cases, but looks brighter surrounded by black.
Yet it’s all a perception, an illusion.
We believe the illusion that we arr different, we feel different, depending on our life situation.

But the truth is, we  remain in essence exactly the same.
We are not defined by the external, neither in space, nor in time.