It’s not quite accurate to describe meditation as the absence of thought. Thinking is what your brain does. Your stomach digests, your heart beats, and your brain thinks. Trying to stop the brain from doing its thinking thing is unnecessary and immensely frustrating.
We tend to give so much importance to every though that flits through our mind. But they are just thoughts. The fact that you had a particular thought doesn’t make it the truth.
One great benefit of meditation is to get people to take a step back from their thoughts. Thoughts come into your mind, but you understand that you can simply let them go. You start to see that there is no need to attach yourself to them. They rise in our minds and if we don’t give them our attention and energy, they subside. They are just like waves in that respect.