Awakening to Grace

By Dharma Joy Penketh

Awakening to Grace is a spiritual memoir. It shares the inner unfathomable beauty and poignancy of a Divine Love, the intense and wonder-filled learnings of a devotee, which are truly the gifts of Grace of her Guru.

Grace is everything. All we are encouraged to do, is recognize it. Grace is in our birth, our relationships, our lifes journey, our inner development and our awakening awareness that there is more to life than our senses perceive.

Dharma shares with you some of her personal and spiritual experiences, all aligned with the perception of Grace.

These are the stories of a novice mystic.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Balboa Press AU
• Release date: Dec 1, 2016
• ISBN: 9781504305389

Dharma Joy Penketh

Dharma Joy Penketh has worked and trained in the self-discovery and self-development field for over thirty-five years. She trained and worked as a sannyasii (yogic nun) and teacher, working mostly in India and Southeast Asia. Currently she works as a spiritual coach, teacher of self-healing, and a facilitator. While she is based in New Zealand, many of her clients are international.

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Copyright © 2016 Dharma Joy Penketh.

Author photo by: Sandra Johnson

Boutique Photography

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

The author of this book does not dispense medical advice or prescribe the use of any technique as a form of treatment for physical, emotional, or medical problems without the advice of a physician, either directly or indirectly. The intent of the author is only to offer information of a general nature to help you in your quest for emotional and spiritual well-being. In the event you use any of the information in this book for yourself, which is your constitutional right, the author and the publisher assume no responsibility for your actions.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

ISBN: 978-1-5043-0537-2 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5043-0538-9 (e)

Balboa Press rev. date: 12/01/2016

Contents

Introduction

1.  My Early Life

Meeting Glimpses of my Eternal Self

2.  Spiritual Training

Meeting a new way of life

3.  Guru

Meeting my Beloved

4.  Spiritual Teacher

Meeting Grace

5.  A Counsellor

Meeting Compassion

6.  Communication

Meeting the Magic of Listening

7.  Spiritual Coach

Meeting Joy

8.  Zhineng Qigong

Meeting the Cosmic Energy

9.  Intuitive Group

Meeting Intuitive Alignment

10.  Tikanga Group

Meeting Rasa, the Divine Flow

11.  Work

Meeting the Divine Play

12.  Reality Shifts

Meeting further new perceptions

Glossary

References

Publishing information

What I write in this book on various topics is purely my experience of them at the time I went through the training or the experience. It is not a specific or even general authoritative text on events or institutions, it is purely what I have chosen to convey about my own experience, and in my own words, other than quotes. Names have been changed to respect the privacy of some people. There are a few real names that I have sort and received permission to use.

Sam’skrta words are used freely in this book. There is also a glossary of terms at the back of the book. Pronunciation of sam’skrta words: vowels are a = ar (as in: far), e = a or ay (as in: display), i = ee (as in: knee), o = oh (as in: open), u=oo (as in: luna). m’= ng (as in: sung), a - at the end of a word is often silent, krt sounds like it has an ‘i’ in it, hence sam’skrta is pronounced sungskrit. Please look up the glossary at the end of the book for pronunciations and meanings of words and terms.

I swim in the Ocean of Your Unbounded Love.

Your Grace is Everything. I am Yours.

Tubhyameva Samarpayet Ba’ba’

Life will give you whatever experience is most helpful for the evolution of your consciousness.

~Eckhart Tolle

"Awakening to Grace is a stand-alone book that is the first book in a series called Spiritual Coach: Spiritual Teacher". It is about experiences that have been significant in my life and that I hold tremendous gratitude for. This little book is all about Grace.

Introduction

Whether we are aware of it or not, the whole of life is about Grace. That we exist at all is purely Grace.

Our scientists have yet to find out why we exist. They don’t know how we exist. They have fields of knowledge as to what exists, and how to research and manipulate it. They have investigated the tiniest particles and considered the vastness of space, and their knowledge is still far from complete. They just don’t seem to know what it is that created this life, what animates it, what runs the system, and why life exists at all. What to speak of consciousness? Indeed, there is very little understanding of what actually consciousness is. What is it that engages us in this dance of life?

Grace is not something that can be examined in a science laboratory, or a psych lab. Nor even can it be experienced in philosophical discussion. I remember when I had the stunning experience of compassion, which in itself was an experience of Grace. I was about forty-two. Before this epiphany experience, I had studied and randomly read about compassion, so I had an academic appreciation of it. When I actually experienced it, it was way beyond anything I had entertained in my mind. Experiencing compassion this way was definitely an ‘inner’ experience.

When I have experienced extraordinary Grace it is never the same. I recognise this Grace because of the energy coming with it, or the energy that is it. You will start to recognise by now the limitation of words in attempting to describe and explain it. It is just not possible. Perhaps poets, particularly those who specialise in the spiritual field come close to it. When I talk about Grace in the following chapters of this book, what I am doing is reliving it and writing it down descriptively as I go.

I do not know the ‘mechanisms’ of Grace. I don’t know how life is put together. I think that must be one stunning mind-blowing story. What I have is my own relationship with the Divine. My heart and soul story. It feels like I am in the ultimate and most profound romance. It is a deeply evolving awareness of the sweetness of that Grace, all around me. Writing this book has been wonderful, and in itself, Grace.

My wish in writing this book is that it benefits you in some way. Even though I have written it as ‘my’ story it really is part of the human story. It is a love story, and it belongs to all of us.

As you will see as you read further, I have lived and worked as a spiritual teacher. I have also worked as a yoga teacher, an