Leap Into Faith

The leap of faith of Immanuel Kant, and later Søren Kierkegaard, is the act of believing in or accepting something intangible or unprovable, something without empirical evidence. It is an act commonly associated with religious belief, as many religions consider faith to be an essential element of piety.

The leap into faith described by Nagasema to King Milinda is based on empirical evidence.  The frightened crowd of people see a man conscious of his own strength and courage, as fine a description of an awakened person as I can think of, leap over the raging torrent, and they then do not blindly believe, but know, that this can be done, and that they too can do the same.

The Buddha insisted that after his death, his followers not rely on his teachings as a matter of faith or dogma, but that they test for themselves to determine if these things are true.  He considered his teachings as propositions or theorems that followers should solve for themselves, and act according to their own understanding and experience.