A friend, a buddhist monk is fond of saying "words are only heard by the ears, they must be heard by the heart ( meaning that they must be "experienced from within") or it is just so much water poured on a duck's head"
Zen Knotting? Here's another Zen bumper sticker: "The more you talk about it, the further away from it you get".
So show me the sound of one sheet flapping...
But seriously, folks... Am I some kind of kinking freak (watch it, PABPRES!
), or are there other knotters here who "see" knots?
Please don't take this as a brag, because I can guarantee you it's an acute pain in the "rectal sphincter" most of the time! But yours truly has been kinking cordage since about age 3 or so, and I just don't think: "I'm going to need to tie a Three-Legged Turk's Head knot here!" Unless I'm learning a Three-Legged Turk's Head knot, trying to find places to use it, that is!! Today, for example!
I "see" knots as pieces of cordage holding things together, with other pieces of cordage "backing them up" as by holding those pieces together. They literally do "just come out of my hands" whenever I need them! If I don't need a knot, I have to work very hard to make them.
It's Zenlike, in that it is
very hard to communicate verbally. And the more I try to describe it, the more blank stares I get from the audience. "
This part holds the two sticks together, then
that part keeps this part from coming
a-part..."
Is there anyone else "out there" who just fastens cordage to stuff "because this'll work"?
Yes, this is intentionally contrapuntal to the taxonomy suggested in
many other posts (my own included), but it's part of the reason why I have such a hard time with knot knames. As some of you here have "called me to task" over that very shortcoming, maybe now you'll understand why, should you care.
So I'd never expect to find other "Zen Knotters"; just hoping to see if anyone else is "into"
The Zen of Knotting...
And lest any of you think I'm anything less than extremely appreciative, let me now thank you all for inspiring me to tie, all by myself, a 7B * 27L THK, doubled twice, in dayglo yellow braided brickmason's cord, on my "hopped up" 2C Maglight. It looks like sh1t in a sock, because I'm just artistic enough to see how screwed up I made it, but it's "loud" enough to shout "there's something different here!!" (As if the eyeball-melting light coming out of the end weren't enough!). I'm extremely grateful to you all for leading me to this feeling of accomplishment, now that it's done & stuffed back in the glove compartment!! Thank you!!! (
However, let me assure you that my other "way", what I call "Flashlight Service" because that's all it is, is very much faster, and just as yellow.)
(
BTW: The "correct" number of bights for anything you'll hold with your hand is seven. I kid you knot! Make a circle with your index finger & thumb & you'll see that for yourself. The two tips are the first two, the next bones are 3 and 4, the big bone in the index finger is 5, then the index knuckle & the thumb muscle are 6 and 7. See?)
But enough about me. Does a kink in a cord have Buddha-nature or knot? If you say "yes", you deny your own Buddha-nature, if you say "no", you should tie ABOK #2469 around your waist & throw yourself into a hurricane.
Hit me!
