Most would probably consider you to be overthinking this, but I don't believe there is such a thing is overthinking. It is this sort of scrutiny that leads to be better understandings, so I thank you for sharing.
Perhaps the theory comes undone when you start trying to apply it to singular human beings, and I might add-- singular lifetimes. I don't know if reincarnation is a thing, but I am open to the possibility. So, if one has multiple lives, than the balance can be retained over more than one lifetime.
However, I do not think that this balance need to apply to our individual selves. I feel strongly that, while we do have our own uniqueness and individuality, there is also a part of us that is interconnected to all life on Earth. So, the balance need not be looked for on an individual basis, but on the wholeness of us all.
There is also the matter of subjectivity. How can we measure balance when people have different ideas of what brings pleasure and what brings pain? Looking at it this way, we can find the balance in an event without the need to find a second event. One could take joy from that event, and perhaps several others take a fraction of displeasure which balance out the joy in their totality.
Obviously, we are entering into deeply philosophical areas here, and touching on concepts that we will never be able to validate. But the point of this post is to show that you can always find that balance if you are looking for it hard enough, and it can bring comfort when you do.
Much thanks to you for inviting my mind to exercise itself, and I have no problem with very long comments as long as they're about the subject in the post.
Thank you for taking the time to reply so thoroughly! Haha XD
I was actually going to mention reincarnation in my 'little' rant but I thought I'd spare the length XD I was going to say that in order to get out of this maddening 'balancing' trap you'd either have to give up the idea of a 'balance' or you need to say that a person has multiple lifetimes through which Karma can do its job. However, multiple lifetime would, inevitably, multiply the problems that start on the individual scale, not minimise them. Yin and Yang thinking, in itself, requires us to not see ourselves as meaningless in the cosmic plan but central, since changes which happen within will multiply and ripple outwards. A crack in the foundation will only grow, regardless of whether you refurbish the building above it, or rebuild it several times over. As long as the foundation is cracked, it will continue to get worse. So, giving a flawed individual sever lifetimes does not minimise the problem but only aggravates and exaggerates it.
As for subjectivity, I completely agree! We cannot see the balance ourselves, which is exactly the question of how could we decide what to do in any given situation? Should we do anything at all? If we do not know the current position of the balance scale then we cannot possibly know the consequences of our actions. We could be bringing balance, or we could be destroying it.
For example, suppose I am rich and I pass a homeless beggar on the street. I happen to be able to give this person enough cash so he could rent a proper home for a while and fix his life. This could go any number of ways, but to simplify, for the sake of conversation, two things could possibly happen: He could actually fix his life, become rich, then remember me and repay me back in full one day. Or, if the universe sees my action as a destruction of the cosmic balance (since this person was born a beggar due to his bad Karma from a previous life, lets say), so, in order to restore this, another beggar sees us, becomes jealous, stabs him and steals all the money. How could I possibly decide what to do in this situation? Should I be charitable, or should I pass him by? My charity, after all, could lead to losses on both sides.
This is why I see the idea of balance as very fickle and emotionally unsatisfying, most of the time. Usually, it's presented as some sort of divine justice, but such a thing does not exist in a Yin and Yang universe seeking balance, where the best possible lifestyle is to retreat to solitude and meditate so that you have as small an impact on the world as possible.
Thank you, again, for taking the time to discuss this with me! ^_^