Physics as the source of greatness of mind. The first injunction is not moral but cognitive: EXERCISE"acquire a contemplative method" (θεωρητικὴν μέθοδον κτῆσαι) for how all things TERMchange into one another, and train yourself (συγγυμνάσθητι) in this part. The justification is strikingly pragmatic: οὐδὲν γὰρ οὕτως μεγαλοφροσύνης ποιητικόν — "nothing so produces greatness of mind." Physics here is not theory but a gymnasium: the habit of seeing things pass into one another enlarges the scale of one's view (cf. 4.36 Θεώρει διηνεκῶς…).

A portrait in the aorist. Marcus then shifts to the past tense and draws a man already formed: EXERCISEἐξεδύσατο τὸ σῶμα — "he has stripped off the body," having grasped that "in no time at all he must leave all this and depart from among men." The aorist betrays that what is described is not a process but a result — as if Marcus were looking at someone from outside rather than prescribing to himself.

A twofold surrender. The core of the passage is an exact division: ἀνῆκεν ὅλον ἑαυτὸν TERMδικαιοσύνῃ μέν εἰς τὰ ὑφ’ ἑαυτοῦ ἐνεργούμενα, ἐν δὲ τοῖς ἄλλοις συμβαίνουσι τῇ τῶν ὅλων TERMφύσει — "he gave himself up wholly: to justice in what he himself does, and in all else that befalls, to the nature of the Whole." The same formula as at 9.31 (δικαιότης toward one's own cause, ἀταραξία toward the external): DOGMAthe discipline of action governs what is one's own, the discipline of desire the rest.

What he does not take into his mind. τί δ’ ἐρεῖ τις ἢ TERMὑπολήψεται περὶ αὐτοῦ ἢ πράξει κατ’ αὐτοῦ — "what anyone will say, or suppose about him, or do against him" — οὐδ’ εἰς TERMνοῦν βάλλεται, he does not even take it into his mind. Not "he endures it with indifference," but he does not enter it into consideration at all: another's ὑπόληψις is not among the data of the problem (cf. 3.4). Exactly two things remain: to do the present thing justly, and to DOGMAlove the present allotment — φιλεῖ, "loves," not "puts up with."

A straight line through the law. The close is an image of movement: DOGMAεὐθεῖαν περαίνειν διὰ τοῦ νόμου, "to draw the straight line through the law," and, drawing it straight, ἕπεσθαι τῷ θεῷ — "to follow God." Law here is not a fence but a line one travels along; and following God turns out to be no separate piety but that same straight course. The governing discipline is desire, the sustaining one action.