The importance of tension for deep learning has been a theme throughout the book. This chapter explores certain “essential tensions” – paradoxes that are not resolvable but require constant attention if they are to remain in a useful balance. Essential tensions include those between intuition and deliberation, the center and the edge, order and disruption, and the self and the other. Holding these tensions is vital for mindful – and hence deep – learning, and they require a dialectical way of thinking and being.