Double vigilance. The rule distributes attention across two channels: words (τὰ λεγόμενα) and the things done at each impulse (καθ’ ἑκάστην TERMὁρμὴν τὰ γινόμενα). To words — "by the letter" (κατὰ λέξιν): EXERCISEfollow not the general drift of the speech but each word. To deeds — at every impulse, without gaps. Nothing that passes through the mind — neither another's speech nor one's own action — should pass untracked.

Aim and meaning. Each channel has its own question. Of an action one asks its TERMaim (ἐπὶ τίνα σκοπὸν ἡ ἀναφορά — "to what target the reference"); of speech — its meaning (τί τὸ σημαινόμενον). τὸ σημαινόμενον is a technical term of Stoic dialectic: "the signified," the incorporeal meaning-λεκτόν, distinguished by the school both from the sounding word and from the thing (DL VII 62–63). Marcus carries the category over from logic into askesis: to understand speech is to reach the signified; to understand a deed is to reach its aim. The Greek τοῦ ἑτέρου… τοῦ ἑτέρου is deliberately compressed; Rogovin and Long unfold the distribution in different orders, but the sense is the same.

Kindred passages. A direct continuation of 06-53 ("train yourself to attend closely to what another says, and enter into the speaker's soul"); the same question of ἀναφορά — 10.37 ("at every action ask: to what does he refer it?"); on the aim — 12.20 ("nothing at random and nothing without an aim"). The exercise is two-sided: EXERCISEπροσοχή toward what is happening and EXERCISEπαρακολούθησις toward the movements of thought — here they are joined in a single rule. The governing discipline is assent (to secure the meaning and not be deceived); the sustaining one, action (to audit the aim of the impulse).