{"id":992,"date":"2026-10-27T04:24:27","date_gmt":"2026-10-27T04:24:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/allycheang.com\/?p=992"},"modified":"2026-10-27T04:52:18","modified_gmt":"2026-10-27T04:52:18","slug":"awakening-beyond-doing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/allycheang.com\/en\/awakening-beyond-doing\/","title":{"rendered":"The Way of No Way | Awakening from the Matrix"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Some awakenings do not bring the joy we imagine. Instead, they feel like a kind of death\u2014as the world we once knew, and the self that believed in it, seem to collapse in an instant.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">That Night, I Suddenly \u201cKnew\u201d Something<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">One night in May of that year, I fell asleep as usual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">At the very moment my body naturally turned to the left, I suddenly became fully aware that I was turning over.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">My body seemed to remain asleep, yet my awareness was remarkably clear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In that instant, two messages suddenly arose in my awareness:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>\u201cThe medical and healthcare systems were established to weaken the human immune system.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>\u201cThe New Age movement and religion exist to weaken the human mind.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">These were not conclusions I had reached through reasoning, but sudden inner impressions so powerful that, in that moment, they felt beyond question.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I could not understand what they meant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The moment I tried to analyse them logically, the seemingly clear flow of information abruptly stopped.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It was not until the following afternoon that I remembered the experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It was during the pandemic, so I naturally associated the first message with the public debate surrounding vaccination. As for the second, I still could not make sense of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I did not know whether these messages reflected the realities of the external world. Yet I strongly felt that they were touching upon beliefs I had never questioned before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">When Life Suddenly Came to a Halt<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">After that, I carried on with my busy life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Work, teaching, translation\u2014there was always more to be done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Looking back, perhaps all that busyness was also an unconscious form of avoidance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Then, one day in July, I was utterly exhausted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It was a kind of mental exhaustion that words could hardly describe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I decided to stop. Even if it meant missing work deadlines, I no longer wanted to force myself to keep going.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Every morning after breakfast, I would lie on the sofa, holding a pillow and closing my eyes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">No music. No meditation. No deliberate spiritual practice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">After lunch, I would simply continue resting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Apart from eating, bathing, and attending to basic daily needs, I spent almost the entire day in stillness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This continued for more than two weeks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">From the outside, my life seemed to have come to a standstill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">No productivity. No progress. Some might even have called it a period of idleness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Yet what I could never have imagined was this\u2014<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>It was during those days of doing absolutely nothing that I experienced one of the most profound inner upheavals of my life.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">When the Familiar World Began to Collapse<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">During that period, many beliefs I had once held without question began to be shaken, one after another.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Beliefs about society, education, family, morality, success, religion, spirituality, and how a person ought to live.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The scope was so vast that it touched almost every aspect of how I had understood life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I began to realise that many things I had taken for granted might simply have been ideas taught and repeated since childhood, eventually becoming part of my own belief system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">What does success really mean?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">What makes a life truly meaningful?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Why do we so often believe that we are not good enough\u2014that we must constantly be fixed, improved, or saved?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Everything I had once believed so deeply suddenly felt unfamiliar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It felt as though the solid ground beneath my feet had vanished in an instant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Shock. Disbelief. Even fear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But the deepest emotion was grief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Why had I only begun to see these things now?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">How much had I missed throughout all those years?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If I had understood life differently much earlier, would my life have turned out completely differently?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>It felt as though I was mourning my former self.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The \u201cme\u201d who had believed in certain standards, lived according to certain ideas, and worked so hard to become a particular kind of person seemed to have died.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I was still alive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The sun still rose. People still went to work and carried on with their lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Everything in the outer world remained the same, yet my inner world had been turned completely upside down.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I could not return to the past, yet I did not know how to face the future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I came to realise that awakening does not necessarily arrive with joy and light.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Sometimes, it feels more like death and rebirth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The Way of No Way<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">What amazed me most was that all of this happened when I was doing absolutely nothing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">No rituals. No deliberate meditation. No constant cleansing, attunement, or attempts to raise my vibration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I was not even seeking awakening.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I simply stopped.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This led me to reconsider what spiritual practice truly meant to me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Have we become so accustomed to constantly \u201cdoing\u201d in order to prove that we are growing?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Learning more. Practising more. Cleansing more. Improving more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As though only through endless effort could we become better, more complete human beings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Yet beneath all this lies a question worth contemplating:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>If we continually believe that we are incomplete, could all our efforts to become whole actually be reinforcing that very belief of incompleteness?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We may believe we are moving towards freedom, while unknowingly moving from one belief system into another.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Those days of stillness gave me a different understanding of Non-Doing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Non-Doing is not passivity, nor does it mean abandoning action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It means no longer being driven by the belief that we must constantly do something to prove our worth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Some transformations do not happen through constantly adding more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It is only when we stop chasing that we may begin to recognise the beliefs that have been holding us captive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Awakening from the Matrix<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I once described this experience as \u201cawakening from the Matrix.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Today, I understand the Matrix as something that goes beyond external social structures or systems of thought.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">At a deeper level, the Matrix consists of beliefs we have internalised so thoroughly that we mistake them for our own desires.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We believe that success must meet certain standards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We believe that life must be lived in a particular way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Even in spiritual growth, we may believe that we must continually be healed, cleansed, and elevated before we can become whole.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But how many of these beliefs have we consciously chosen through genuine understanding?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And how many have simply been repeated so often that they eventually became part of how we perceive the world?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>The hardest limitations to recognise are often not those imposed upon us by others, but those we have come to believe without question.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">After everything I experienced, one thing became increasingly clear to me:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Spiritual practice is not about becoming a healer, a teacher, or someone with a special identity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">These may be roles we take on in life, but they are not the ultimate purpose of the inner journey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Spiritual practice is about rediscovering who we are and reclaiming sovereignty over our own lives.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We can learn healing practices, accompany others, and offer support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But we need not continually seek salvation outside ourselves because we believe something is missing within us. Nor do we need to rescue others in order to prove our worth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Ultimately, spiritual practice is a deeply personal inner journey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Others may walk beside us, but no one can walk the path for us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Even today, I would not claim to be fully awakened.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For whenever I think I have understood something, life may reveal yet another layer I had not previously recognised.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>True awakening may not be about possessing truths that others do not know, but about beginning to see how our own unquestioned beliefs have limited us.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Sometimes, life's most profound transformations do not come from what we strive to do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">They happen in the moment we finally allow ourselves to stop, no longer rushing to become someone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Non-Doing<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Unlearn &amp; Relearn<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Death &amp; Rebirth<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><a href=\"https:\/\/allycheang.com\/en\/#about\">Ally Cheang<\/a><\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u6709\u4e9b\u9192\u6765\uff0c\u5e76\u6ca1\u6709\u60f3\u8c61\u4e2d\u7684\u559c\u60a6\u3002\u53cd\u800c\u50cf\u662f\u4e00\u573a\u6b7b\u4ea1\u2014\u2014\u8fc7\u53bb\u6240\u8ba4\u8bc6\u7684\u4e16\u754c\uff0c\u4ee5\u53ca\u90a3\u4e2a\u6df1\u4fe1\u8fd9\u4e00\u5207\u7684\u81ea\u5df1\uff0c\u4eff\u4f5b\u5728\u4e00\u77ac\u95f4\u5d29\u584c [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":993,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-992","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-6"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/allycheang.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/992","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/allycheang.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/allycheang.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/allycheang.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/allycheang.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=992"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/allycheang.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/992\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":994,"href":"https:\/\/allycheang.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/992\/revisions\/994"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/allycheang.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/993"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/allycheang.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=992"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/allycheang.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=992"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/allycheang.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=992"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}