Having meaning or avoiding suffering

Some philosophers have taught us that to have meaning in your life you need to have some sort of a defining commitment (an ultimate concern) and usually to something finite and temporal. While on the other hand, Buddhists say that to lead a life free from suffering one should have no attachments.
So my question here, are a suffering-free-life and a meaningful-life mutually exclusive?

Punishment

I was never able to understand the concept of punishment. The best explanation I found was something along the lines of punishment is supposed to deter you from doing wrong. This brings up two problems, what to do when the act is done, why would someone commit a wrongful act in the first place.
For the time being, I am mainly concerned with the former issue. It is really giving me a hard time and I cannot find a satisfactory answer. What does justice really mean?
Any insight would be more than welcome.

logica locuta est, causa finita est!!

In our world this is definitely not true, the world we live in is very far from being logical.
But I don't know if a logical world is something good. To me, logical implies deterministic, and living a life where everything is known is something i cannot do.

Now and formerly

Watching an ad for the upcoming Oscars i was reminded by this passage from Nietzsche's "The Gay Science"

"What good is all the art of our works of art if we lose that higher art, the art of festivals? Formerly, all works of art adorned the great festival road of humanity, to commemorate high and happy moments. Now one uses works of art to lure aside from the great via dolorosa of humanity those who are wretched, exhausted, and sick, and to offer them a brief lustful moment--a little intoxication and madness."