I believe there are two of you. The Actor and the Audience. In existence at the same time.

When the sages spoke of balance, I don't think they meant between joy and sorrow, pleasure and pain, work and play. I think they meant in every instance, in every second of life, we must balance the realization that we are both acting on and watching the stage that is our life.

As you consider this, consider that you play the leading role in your own 'leela' (a play, a drama). But it's only a role. You're also watching it...you bought a ticket, as it were. Yet, in order that the audience really like the drama, you must play this role with all you've got. So while each act, each action, is tremendously important...realize that you are greater, more, than it. You are also outside of that action.

True balance is in playing your part, and watching yourself play it. If this were true, then a bad act spoils the play. The audience may not like it. But the audience is not harmed, only the play. A great act elevates the play. The audience loves it. But it's only that act...the audience remains, fundamentally, unchanged, once the act is over.

Knowing this, our actions then have great importance on stage, but are merely theater off it. And if you are both the actor and the audience, then you act for a standing ovation...from yourself.