At the end of most of my Yoga classes I do a reading. Since I started teaching, most of my readings have been from Deborah Adele's Yamas and Niyamas. I love this book. The readings were on a variety of subjects including self-love, balance, surrender, courage.
But I wanted to branch out my readings to other voices as well. I started doing some readings a couple of weeks ago from Thich Nhat Hanh's You Are Here. The first two readings were great on letting go and emotions. Then I chose another reading that would have been for this week. It was on the nature of no-birth and no-death. But something was grating at me about reading it to my students.
I realized it is a reading about a particular religious perspective (Buddhist). And while I'm happy to share with my students my views if they want to know them, I want the readings to be accessible regardless of their particular beliefs. So, while I love Thich Nhat Hanh's messages, I will definitely only be reading those that pertain to mindfulness and not those that wander into Buddhist teachings.
With that, I'm moving back to more Yoga based books that look at things from a broader sense for my readings.
I agree with you! There are some lovely readings from the Daily Word (a Unity Church booklet) but because God is cited, I am somewhat reluctant to "go there". I've found by substituting the word "spirit" for "God" that it becomes a little more neutral and less apt to offend.
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