Commentary on Meditations: B8:7-9

Every living organism is fulfilled when it follows the right path for its own nature. For a rational nature the right path is to withhold assent to anything false or obscure in the impressions made on its mind, to direct its impulses solely to social action, to reserve its desires and aversions to what lies in our power, and to welcome all that is assigned to it by universal nature. Because it is a part of universal nature just as the nature of the leaf is part of the plant's nature: except that in the case of the leaf its nature partakes of a nature which lacks perception or reason and is liable to impediment. Whereas man's nature is part of a nature which is unimpeded, intelligent, and just - in that to each creature it gives fair and appropriate allocations of duration, substance, cause, activity, and experience. But do not look to find a one-to-one correspondence in every case, but rather an overall equivalence - the totality of this to the aggregate of that.

Not possible to study. But possible to rein in arrogance; possible to triumph over pleasures and pains; possible to rise above mere glory; possible not to be angry with the unfeeling and the ungrateful, and even, yes, to care for them.

Let nobody any more hear you blaming palace life: don't hear yourself blaming it.

The nature of humans is to think and act rationally.  We are rational when we exercise the discipline of assent.  What does this mean?  When our senses receive impressions from our environment and other people and events, we don't have to immediately react without thinking.  We can identify which things are up to us and which things are not up to us.  Once we've made that delineation, we can then choose which moral virtue to respond with, if at all.  Otherwise, if we think we will be content by seeking to control something that is not up to us, then we put ourselves at risk of being frustrated.  Therefore, we should follow the counsel Marcus offers to himself. We should withhold our assent to anything false or obscure, and we should focus our attention on things up to us and then ensure our actions are always social and just.

Furthermore, as rational creatures, we can accept Universal nature, or in other words, those things that happen in the world and universe.  We can't control them, but we must accept and live with them.  Death is a prime example of something that is universal and it is something we all must accept.

Humans can "triumph over" things beyond our control.  We can focus our desires on living virtuously, as opposed to living for pleasure or striving for pain avoidance.  It is all about pointing our desires to virtue.  It is possible to not want fame.  It is possible to not be angry with mean people.  It is even possible to care for mean-spirited people.  Jesus conveyed the same idea with the powerful words: "turn the other cheek."

In chapter 9, Marcus chides himself complaining about palace life.

(see also Citadel p. 29, 44, 70, 138, 219, 221, 241, 269-270, 286, 291)