Nonduality for all

Great time with nondual guy Evan Gattis of the Houston Astros this past Monday at Yankee Stadium. Gattis was depressed and suicidal and had given up on baseball when, after a long search, including time with a few nonduality teachers, he encountered John Wheeler. John inspired a shift in Evan. Instead of standing in the batters box of thoughts, anxiety, depression, Evan now took his stand in the batters box of awareness itself.

With that shift, with stressful thoughts no longer driving him crazy, all that was left was to go play baseball again. Simple, in a way. We see many people turning their lives around with such a shift in perception but it's rarely with a high profile person.

Evan was aware of my mandate to bring nonduality to the streets, to make it a topic of conversation between people when they're in the supermarket checkout line. He said he has the same mandate. He loved it when Sports Illustrated used the word "nonduality" in their fine article about him.

Evan generously provided a field pass where we talked for about ten minutes about nonduality during Houston's batting practice. He told me that a few years earlier he was begging for money in the New York subways, "Now I'm in Yankee Stadium," he said. He told me he felt free having nothing, that it was a great feeling in the subways. In my own way, I knew what he was talking about. We hugged and soon the game began.

The game was a pitcher's battle, the Yankees winning 1-0 in the bottom of the 9th. Evan had two hits though. After the game he treated a few of us to something to eat and drink at the Hard Rock Cafe. After that, me, him, his girlfriend Kim, and his friend Joe hung out at my motel room till 4am talking baseball and nonduality.

Among my favorite things Evan said were simple ones like, "It's not easy to hit a 3-2 slider." He told me baseball is so beautiful it makes him cry. I interviewed Evan for three hours about everything. Don't know how much of the recording will be heard as we're still working on saying what needs to be said.

The Astros won the next two games against the Yankees and Evan hit three home runs. Like he said to me once, "You can't miss with non duality."  (Jerry Katz)

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