There is this objective or direction in meditation practices. Look at a candle, observe thoughts without attachment, recite a mantra…all variations of controlling thought, of trying to position consciousness away from the thought part. But this isn’t possible. In order to realize you stopped thought you think it, you tell yourself you did it which in essence is one more thought. Same problem for the soloist or the improviser. Many musicians know they’ve lost it if they find themselves thinking. Often they put it that way – I was thinking too much. Meditation and soloing are similar mind games, both putting thought under a microscope, trying to get somewhere that is almost like being in control even though it is never ever really possible.