I think OP is correct, it just wasn't stated as well as it could've been. Meditation (at least some practice forms) is an act of forcing boredom upon yourself AND exploring how your mind's default settings react in that environment. There is a reason why focusing on something like your breath is recommended vs. focusing on the television (breath is boring!).

“All of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone.”

> “All of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone.”

A quote from Blaise Pascal, a philosopher who spent a lot of time sitting quietly, alone, thinking.

Great quote, but he was probably talking about thinking, rather than meditation.

Boredom is an emotional state, it is not the absence of stimulation.

And sitting down in a quiet, non-stimulated environment typically produces all sorts of emotions, does it not?

YMMV but for many practitioners meditation does not imply boredom.

Maybe refine it to training yourself to accept being bored. In the sense of paying pure attention to what your are doing without judging it. This is the core focus of some forms of zen practice for example. There are clearly meditation practices which seeks other goals, but mere judgement free acceptance is an important goal for some.

E.g. you're doing dishes. It may be boring, but boring is a judgement. Set aside the judgement and there is just the act of doing the dishes, which is neither good or bad in itself, it just is. The outcome may be good (clean dishes), but the act itself is just sensory input and muscular impulses that you let rise and fall in your mind.

As such it is a practice in not letting yourself be affected by things you do not want to be affected by. The feeling of boredom that may arise if you let it, is just another object to meditate on. Learn to set it aside, and a lot of objections to doing "boring" tasks falls away.

> As such it is a practice in not letting yourself be affected by things you do not want to be affected by.

Meditation can be a lot more, but yes, I agree that this is an important lesson that can come from it.