Camus, Existentialism and the Idea of Suicide

From Camus' opening, "An Absurd Reasoning," to his long essay, "The Myth of Sisyphus":

There is but one truly serious philosophical problem, and that is suicide. Judging whether life is or is not worth living amounts to answering the fundamental question of philosophy. All the rest— whether or not the world has three dimensions, whether the mind has nine or twelve categories—comes afterwards. These are games; one must first answer. And if it is true, as Nietzsche claims, that a philosopher, to deserve our respect, must preach by example, you can appreciate the importance of that reply, for it will precede the definitive act. These are facts the heart can feel; yet they call for careful study before they become clear to the intellect.

Camus elaborated in the 1955 edition's preface:

The fundamental subject of The Myth of Sisyphus is this: it is legitimate and necessary to wonder whether life has a meaning; therefore it is legitimate to meet the problem of suicide face to face. The answer, underlying and appearing through the paradoxes which cover it, is this: even if one does not believe in God, suicide is not legitimate. Written fifteen years ago, in 1940, amid the French and European disaster, this book declares that even within the limits of nihilism it is possible to find the means to proceed beyond nihilism. In all the books I have written since, I have attempted to pursue this direction. Although The Myth of Sisyphus poses mortal problems, it sums itself up for me as a lucid invitation to live and to create, in the very midst of the desert.

What remains to be demonstrated by Camus' essay, is that living and creating (or something) are "means to proceed beyond nihilism." I suppose it is also intended to persuade the reader to willingly accept Camus' "invitation." Does he pull it off? Does it work? Is it useful? Camus died in a car accident, not by suicide, so maybe it worked for him.

Another question: did Camus and Sartre come to some of the same non-theistic insights about the nature of reality and suffering the that the Buddha and meditation practitioners can? I think so, but I've rarely seen the connection made by Buddhists or by existentialists. A re-reading of this essay would be instructive. There's no sitting meditation in existentialism, no liturgy, no religious rituals handed down over generations. It's interesting -- what does existentialism get that maybe Buddhism doesn't? And what does Buddhism get that maybe existentiallism doesn't? Could some of the differences be due to the practice of meditation? Note Camus' mention of "the heart" in the above, which resonates with Buddhism's emphasis on compassion and insight. Note also his Zen-like "no place" position, mentioned in the introduction:

The absurd, hitherto taken as a conclusion, is considered in this essay as a starting-point. In this sense it may be said that there is something provisional in my commentary: one cannot prejudge the position it entails. There will be found here merely the description, in the pure state, of an intellectual malady. No metaphysic, no belief is involved in it for the moment. These are the limits and the only bias of this book.

Another thought in the same vein -- holocaust survivor and psychiatrist Viktor Frankl wrote about his views, as a survivor of gas camps, on man and life and meaning. I read a book of his last year when my (now ex-)wife left me: Man's Search for Meaning. I was riveted by his survival story, which led him to conclude that life is essentially meaningless, we are alone in the Universe, and man has an inherent responsibility to define his life's meaning by his own will. At least that is how I understood it. I would like to read that again.

I am sure Buddhists and existentialists and others would agree on some basic propositions about man, life and meaning, but the differences are in how they respond -- Frankl with his "logotherapy" and will power, Buddhists with a non-theistic religion of meditation and precepts, and existentialists with, typically, artistic creativity and political action.