A good topic and discussion, Graham.
Whatever we perceive as the universe is only within our mind. So any existentialist attempt to divorce meaning of the universe from meaning of one's own life is rooted in an illusory perception that is all too common. If the universe has no meaning, neither can the individual human life.
On the other hand, 'experiences' also have to be looked at without giving too much importance. After all, any experience is recognized only through memory which is the accumulation of the past and therefore there is no such thing as a truly new experience. It's only a rearrangement of the known from the conscious and the subconscious.
For something to have enduring meaning, it has to be not a phenomenon in time. And that eliminates all knowledge, experiences, ideas, ideologies etc. What remains when all manifest phenomena are negated as false? The very awareness in which they rise and fall. That is our Being and that of the entire universe.
I have written a bit more on this topic for those interested: