system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
Eli5: Why does staring at a reflection of the sun not hurt as much as staring into it directly?
gpt
Some of the light is scattered and not reflected back to your eye, some of it is absorbed by the mirrored surface and turns into heat, and in most cases such as reflections in a window, a lot of the light isn’t being reflected at all. In short, the reflection is less bright, less focused, and much more spread out. 

By contrast when you stare at the sun your pupil is capturing a small, but nonetheless quite dangerous portion of the incoming solar radiation. Seriously, don’t stare at the sun, you will harm your vision.