More Than Mindfulness: Finding ‘Real’ Freedom Through Preserving The Absurd

In his text titled the “Myth of Sisyphus,” Albert Camus explores the concept of ‘The Absurd’, which he describes as the conflict between the fact that (i) the world is void of reason and meaning, and (ii) we have a drive to make meaning out of the world. Camus is a proponent of preserving the absurd, since he believes that if we don’t, we will die by either physical or philosophical suicide. While some die by physical suicide because of the shock of realizing that the world is meaningless, others deny the absurd and engage in philosophical suicide. Camus criticizes prominent existential philosopher Edmund Husserl, accusing him of belonging to the latter group.

The strain of philosophy the Huserrl identifies with is “phenomenology.” Camus’ criticism of phenomenology has two parts. Eventually, Camus says that phenomenology amounts to philosophical suicide because it avoids confronting the absurd by allowing for many metaphysical truths to exist, and in doing so creates a “fragmentary immanence which restores to the universe its depths. ” However, before arriving at this conclusion, he describes a form of phenomenology that could, in fact, be consistent with preserving the absurd. This is a psychological phenomenology that “limits itself to describing what it declines to explain.”

In reading this description, my first thought was: “why?” Why would a species so inclined to explain the world, instead limit itself to a description? What good comes out of describing, without explaining? Then, it occurred to me that the idea of preserving the absurd is closely related to the practice of mindfulness.

Camus’ language also evokes that of mindfulness. For example, he describes this psychological phenomenology as “awaking a sleeping world and making it vivid to the mind.” When I am practicing mindfulness is when I take pleasure in describing, rather than explaining. This describing doesn’t take place in words, but instead takes place as the practice of describing to myself the surroundings around me and how they manifest in my sensations – thus making the world around me vivid to the mind. Even in mindfulness, however, I (and I believe many others) experience the challenge that Camus describes: being only an experiencer is difficult. Even when channeling every effort into being a spectator of our own thoughts, we struggle with not ascribing meaning or judgement to them. This is a direct parallel of the struggle that Camus describes, the struggle of preserving the absurd without giving into our tendency to make-meaning and instead living with that conflict.

The reason this comparison is worth spending time on, is because it illuminates a timelessness of the human search for freedom in an absurd world, while simultaneously illustrating the different faces of this freedom. During mindfulness practices, you exist in the present moment, and this focus on the present can give you the sense that you are expanding the current moment and making it go by slower. The hyper awareness of your actions allows you to behave more intentionally, and this intentionality is seen as a form of freedom – a way of acting in a way that reflects the self, not external pressure or influences. This is one understanding of freedom, and it is very different from the absurd freedom that Camus describes. For Camus, when one preserves the absurd, they make peace with their limited and meaningless time on earth. This too creates a sense of control of the current moment. More importantly, however, it frees individuals from the shackles of having to create a ‘self’ and live by this self, and instead allows them to drop the “stage set” and have a true focus on experience as opposed to construction of meaning.

So, is mindfulness a practice in preserving the absurd? It could be, but I believe that current practices focus more on commonplace understanding of freedom and control as opposed to seeing it as a path of absurd freedom. Can this change? Absolutely! I see a lot of potential for modern mindfulness practices to take on more absurdist aims and embrace not only lack of meaning, but a different form of freedom that has less regard for the future and more on current experience.