A Simple Story

I read this story sometime ago, I apologize for not remembering the source. What I do remember though is that the story was from a source talking about Buddhist teachings. It is a very simple story that holds some meaningful and thoughtful lessons.

A man fell off the edge of the cliff, but was able to stop his fall by hanging onto some roots that was protruding out of the face of the cliff. However, he was not able to climb up the cliff because it was too steep, and the way down was just NOT an option either. With no where to go, he started praying to the Buddha for help. Then he heard a loud booming voice, "let go of the root that you are hanging on to and I will catch you with the palm of my hand." The man looked down but could not see anything below him, except the ground which he will probably land with a loud "splat" if he were to let go. The man replied "but I don't see your hand below me at all." To this, the Buddha replied "if you let go I will be able to catch you with my hand." The man replied "but how can I be sure that you will catch me if I let go?" The Buddha said "if you don't let go I will not be able to catch you." Again, the man said "but how can I be sure that you are not lying to me?" The Buddha said, "if you don't let go, you will never know!"

The moral of the story here is, sometimes we just need to have a little blind faith in order to experience something new. Only then are we able to learn what the new experience has to offer us, thus allowing us to decide for ourselves if the new experience is for us and if we want to continue with it.