Kwatz! — Charles Webb

There may be no path to follow or method to use to attain realization, enlightenment, waking up, satori…but it is often said that if the fruit is ripened fully it will fall from the tree more readily. Kwatz! shakes the tree a bit.

What follows is a confrontation…a strange and amusing, encounter...Dharma combat...between two modern masters…one from the Zen tradition, the other an unlikely Taoist…who has decided that this deadly serious “combat” may be a new and amusing way to spend an afternoon. Each answers the other using variations on sayings from other “masters” that they find apropos to the situation. The writers, philosophers, artists, comedians, etc. whom they paraphrase, are not mentioned by name during the combat itself. The “combat” is intended to have multiple effects upon the reader…a possible shaking of the tree - koan like impact via the odd juxtapositions… confusion trying to figure out who… sort of…said what (a list is provided at the end but no pairings are made)…as well as simply allowing an entertaining and weirdly comic ride with these masters as they verbally whack away at each other…and their audience of students…and readers…and YOU…