Genre and place in the book. The seventh passage continues directly from 03-06: there the criterion was "κρεῖττον δὲ τὸ συμφέρον" (the better is the beneficial), with the good identified as what is truly beneficial to a rational being. 03-07 supplies the negative corollary: never value as "beneficial to yourself" (συμφέρον σεαυτοῦ) anything that would force you to betray your own integrity. Then a portrait of the freedom of the one who has preferred his TERMνοῦς/TERMδαίμων/TERMἀρετή to everything: no tragedy, no groaning, indifference to death and to the length of life.

Structure — two movements.

1. The prohibition + its test (the integrity-list). Do not value as beneficial what will compel you (ἀναγκάσει) to: break faith (πίστιν παραβῆναι), abandon TERMshame / self-respect (αἰδῶ ἐγκαταλιπεῖν), hate, suspect, curse, dissemble, or desire (TERMἐπιθυμῆσαι) something "that needs walls and curtains" (τοίχων καὶ παραπετασμάτων δεόμενον). The last is a vivid test: a desire whose object must be hidden behind walls and hangings is by that very fact shameful. This is the moral-transparency criterion of 03-04 ("thoughts you could avow if suddenly asked"), transposed into action: "would you do it in public?" A genuine good (the rational good of 03-06) never demands such a price; if a "benefit" demands it, it is no benefit.
2. The portrait of the free man. ὁ τὸν ἑαυτοῦ TERMνοῦν καὶ TERMδαίμονα καὶ τὰ ὄργια τῆς TERMἀρετῆς προελόμενος — "he who has preferred [to everything] his own mind and daimon and the secret rites of its virtue." The striking phrase τὰ ὄργια τῆς ἀρετῆς: ὄργια are the secret rites of a mystery-cult (Eleusis, Dionysus). To "prefer the mysteries of one's virtue" casts the inner philosophical life as an initiation into the mysteries — the service of the indwelling divinity as cult (cf. the ἱερεὺς θεῶν of 03-04). Such a man:

• τραγῳδίαν οὐ ποιεῖ — "plays no tragedy" (makes no melodrama of life; cf. Epictetus' warning against tragic theatrics);
• οὐ στενάζει — does not groan;
• needs neither solitude (ἐρημία) nor crowds (πολυπλήθεια) — self-sufficient anywhere (cf. 03-05);
• τὸ μέγιστον — chief of all: ζήσει μήτε διώκων μήτε φεύγων — "will live neither pursuing nor fleeing [death]": the language of ὄρεξις/ἔκκλισις (desire/aversion), Epictetus' first discipline (Ench. 2), applied to death;
• indifferent to whether the soul is "enclosed in the body" for longer or shorter (lifespan is an indifferent);
• and if he must depart at once (ἤδη ἀπαλλάσσεσθαι), he goes MOTIFεὐλύτως ("with easy release" — the εὔλυτος of 03-05) — "as readily as he would do anything else that can be done decently and in order" (αἰδημόνως καὶ κοσμίως). Death is just one more act performed with composure — the ultimate deflation of the fear of death.

Key analyses.

• συμφέρον — the bridge from 03-06. "Never value as συμφέρον σεαυτοῦ…" picks up "κρεῖττον δὲ τὸ συμφέρον." 03-06 established: the good = the beneficial, and beneficial-to-you-as-rational, not as-animal. 03-07 supplies the test: a true benefit never costs you your integrity; if it does, it is only an animal-"benefit" masquerading as a good.
• "Walls and curtains" — the publicity test. ἐπιθυμῆσαί τινος τοίχων καὶ παραπετασμάτων δεομένου — a desire whose object requires concealment condemns itself. The transparency criterion of 03-04 in the register of action; the Stoic-Cynic ideal: live so that nothing need be hidden (Seneca Ep. 83).
• αἰδώς and πίστις. The integrity-list leads with πίστις (good faith / keeping one's word) and TERMαἰδώς (the sense of shame / self-respect) — the relational-social virtues (Roman fides and pudor). To value an external above them is to betray the rational-social self. αἰδώς returns in the adverb αἰδημόνως ("with shame/reverence") at the close — a ring.
• τὰ ὄργια τῆς ἀρετῆς — virtue as mystery-cult. A rare and strong metaphor: the inner philosophical life as initiation into sacred mysteries; the service of the daimon as cult (cf. 03-04 ἱερεὺς θεῶν). Philosophy is not doctrine but consecration.
• νοῦς καὶ δαίμων. Marcus again pairs TERMνοῦς and TERMδαίμονα (cf. 03-03 νοῦς καὶ δαίμων): the rational self is the indwelling divinity, and to prefer it to all = DOGMAself-is-hegemonikon.
• μήτε διώκων μήτε φεύγων — the discipline of desire. "Neither pursuing nor fleeing" is the technical formula of ὄρεξις (desire) and ἔκκλισις (aversion): the sage neither chases life nor flees death. The heart of the discipline of desire.
• The single εὐλάβεια. The lifelong watchful care (εὐλαβούμενος; εὐλάβεια is itself a Stoic εὐπάθεια, the "good" counterpart of fear): that the διάνοια never turn into something "alien" (ἀνοίκειον) to a "rational and civic animal" (νοεροῦ καὶ πολιτικοῦ ζῴου). The one permissible "fear" is the fear of one's own mind betraying its rational-social nature (DOGMAcosmopolis).

The disciplines. The leading one is desire (the judgement of what is truly beneficial; "neither pursuing nor fleeing"; indifference to lifespan and death). The secondary is action (integrity: good faith, αἰδώς, the "rational-civic animal" — the social). Assent is also woven in (the guard against an "alien" turn of the mind). It continues the value-discipline of 03-06.

Stylistics. The integrity-list of seven infinitives (παραβῆναι, ἐγκαταλιπεῖν, μισῆσαι, ὑποπτεῦσαι, καταράσασθαι, ὑποκρίνασθαι, ἐπιθυμῆσαι) — a vice-catalogue defining the cost of a false "benefit." The concrete "walls and curtains" image. The rare cultic ὄργια τῆς ἀρετῆς. The theatre image (τραγῳδίαν οὐ ποιεῖ). The comparison of death to "one more act done decently." The ring of αἰδώς/αἰδημόνως.

Parallels. συμφέρον / the good = the beneficial — 03-06; DL VII 94. The transparency test — 03-04; Seneca Ep. 83; 25. "Do not make a tragedy of life" — Epictetus Disc. 1.4.26; 1.24; Med. 11.6. μήτε διώκων μήτε φεύγων (ὄρεξις/ἔκκλισις) — Epictetus Ench. 2; indifference to death — Med. 2.11; 9.3; 12.23. The soul "enclosed in the body," longer/shorter — Med. 2.17; 4.41; 12.23. Departing readily — Med. 6.28; 9.3; 03-05; MOTIFgrateful-departure. The mind not alien to the social animal — Med. 2.1; 4.4; 8.34; 11.8 (the lopped branch); DOGMAcosmopolis. ὄργια τῆς ἀρετῆς — the mystery-cult metaphor; cf. Plato Symp. 209e–210a. αἰδώς/πίστις — TERMaidos; Med. 1.16.