With Chapter 38, we practice implementing and growing the seeds sown in their antecedent. As with any change, we will face repeated choices that may grow easier over time, but not without setbacks. Chapter 81 will still challenge our understanding of Life, the Universe, and Everything, but the most difficult chapters are yet unwritten—what will we do with the next surprise that catches us off-guard while thinking we are doing so well?
In a sense, tests need to be reimagined. Their value is not a resulting grade, according to the giver of the test, but in our engagement with the test as an opportunity to further explore the edge between what we have come to know and what we have yet to sufficiently appreciate. A test is a lens clarifying a path toward a place where dragons dwell. Tests failed are as significant in our journey as those we easily Aced.
Even as Te cannot describe Tao, Te is never absent its background Tao. We find ourself in Tao and Tao in ourself. The mystery of this synchronicity keeps us returning to Tao and to ourself. Yet we do not return unchanged. Tao and Te find themselves gyring together. In phase and out of phase, they ascend and descend, go forth and return, together.
In an artificial transition from attending to Tao to attending to Te, we continue to be surprised by how they interact. We will learn more about Tao as we look more closely at Te. Be ready to make a Top 10 Te List and further adjust the Tao List.