If the universe lacks any inherent meaning, then how are you a part of the universe able to judge it as meaningless? Does your being contain this meaningfulness that the rest of the universe lacks?
Meaning clearly exists. For example, this paragraph I am typing now has a meaning and a purpose. The problem only arises when we try to apply the concept of 'meaning' to the universe as a whole. The 'meaning' of something is based on its relation to
other things. For example, this paragraph only has a 'meaning' in relation to things outside itself - its words refer to objects outside the string of words themselves, and the purpose of the paragraph (to persuade you of something) presupposes both my own existence (as the writer of the paragraph) and your existence (as the reader of the paragraph). This same logic applies to all other examples of things which have a 'meaning' or a 'purpose'. But it
cannot apply to the universe as a whole, since there is, by definition, nothing outside the universe to which it could relate in order to acquire a 'meaning' or a 'purpose'. The universe therefore does not have, and
cannot have, any meaning or any purpose in and of itself. It just
is.
In Mahayana Buddhism the realisation of emptiness is seen as liberation, not the curse of Nietzsche. However some while practising experience "empty emptiness" more akin to the western experience of emptiness. Some say the problem with "empty emptiness" is that its not really empty.
The concept of 'emptiness' implies the concept of 'fullness', as its dialectical opposite, just as the concept of 'darkness' implies the concept of 'light' (and vice versa, of course). If there were no such thing as light, then we would have no conception of either 'light' or 'darkness'. Likewise, if everything were empty, then we would have no conception of 'emptiness'. To see all things as being 'empty' is therefore nonsensical and, if your aim is to achieve enlightenment, self-defeating. After all, to think of emptiness is to think of
something.
"Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong remedies." - Marx (Groucho)