When I began yoga, in the fall of 2003, my first teacher, Dara Harper, sometimes told us, “Everything is already okay.” During final relaxation at the end of class, Dara once gave us an image of the turbulence of life being like the ocean waves—the ups and downs occur only on the top of the water. I knew this was true, not from experience as a diver, but from high school science class, where we were taught that although the waves look like they are “rolling in” to the shore, the water molecules actually move in a small circular motion and return where they began, so that the “waves” are just lots of particles moving up and down, rather than traveling.

When one sinks below the surface, all becomes peaceful, still. Dara invited us to meditate by visualizing our view of the sea whilst sinking beneath it, each breath taking us deeper and deeper, each moment our surroundings becoming quieter and calmer.

The image and the concept of this meditation resonated with me, such that it remains with me almost ten years later. Still, I recall wondering at the time, How is it possible, that everything could be already ok? So often it seems that hardly anything is ok. Impossible though seems, I currently have three friends in their twenties with brain tumors. Another student and dear friend was raised essentially by monsters, who abused her in ways that I cannot conceive and which she struggles daily to survive. I have witnessed, too many times, beautiful, bright, hard-working, vibrant, good, good young people rejected by their families for claiming their own sexual identities. As a professor, I hear from many students who are under tremendous financial or emotional stress, bearing up under crushing depression, addiction, anxiety. How can one believe that everything is already okay? That here and now, in this moment, before we have made immense efforts to fix things, life is all right? That here, and now—not in some future paradise, but here in the middle of the mess—we are all right?

My thoughts are these: for the Christian believer, everything is already okay on account of the Trinity: because the Father has “fearfully and wonderfully made” us, and diligently watches over us; because Christ has shared our sufferings, and secured our salvation; and because the Holy Spirit indwells us, brilliantly gifts us, constantly intercedes for us. God “knows the end from the beginning,” and God’s providence ensures our constant care.

For the yogi, everything is already okay because the divine “dwells in you as you” (Swami Muktananda); because from a tantric viewpoint, we are not bound creatures struggling to be free of our fragile bodies, or our earthly existence—we are free creatures, choosing to bind ourselves to this limited realm. All we need is within us, waiting to be uncovered, expanded, utilized.

In the yoga I practice I am continually invited to walk in grace, to experiene myself as surrounded by grace, fully loved, all the time. And what if it is true? What if it is indeed the case that bright divinity is our birthright; more, our very nature. Perhaps the deepest reality is that we lack for nothing. That everything we need is already within us. Perhaps the deepest reality is, everything is already okay. Swaha!