To Be or Not to Be Offended

So, I have sometimes prided myself on being a person who doesn’t get offended.  Sure, I get annoyed and think people are dumb and all that, but I don’t really get offended by something.  Getting offended comes from taking something that someone says or does personally, like they are doing it ON PURPOSE to hurt ME.  There are just so many faulty assumptions in there, the biggest ones being that other people are actually making conscious decisions about their words and actions (most of us seem to be unconscious a large part of the time) and then that they would consciously make those decisions based on how it would impact me (in fact, no one really is paying attention to or cares about me and my life).

So it seems that being offended comes from the ego (ahankara).  (The irony of saying I pride myself on not getting offended is not lost on me).  I am wrapped up in my own “I” and all the identities that go with it and think the whole world revolves around me and so end up feeling offended when something doesn’t fit with my vision of how things should be.  It perhaps goes hand in hand with our lawsuit culture where a person sues for any sort of slight or accident, trying to put blame on someone because we should be able to go through life without anything bad ever happening to us.  (Before you get offended, I realize that some lawsuits are perfectly legit—I’m just saying that sometimes we’re just human and make mistakes or fall down).

Anyway, all this is really a lead up to introduce you to this blog I found called Recovering Yogi.  I’m sure there are many “yogis” who would be offended by this blog, but I think there is a lot of funny stuff in there.  I don’t agree with everything in it, but I like the Keepin’ It Real aspect.  Sometimes they are even talking about me, but I still think it’s funny.  I’ve always thought our sense of humor resides in our witness aspect, that part than can step back and observe objectively.  The ego definitely doesn’t have a sense of humor.  So, here’s a link to a recent post, which is mild on the snark-o-meter compared to many of the posts, making it a good entry point, I guess.  Hope you enjoy!