As a younger person I spent significant time doing boring repetitious work, and learned that it produces what I called a "zone" akin to what people describe with deep meditation. You can get the job done, but especially if it requires little direct attention, you get a chance to think. What you think can be either mindless or profound, and there's usually little conscious choosing of which it will be; but I, and others who've described similar effects, generally found that people will have both kinds.

Perhaps it's what makes assembly line work bearable. I suspect it happens fairly commonly in some such situations.

It also seems that perhaps the rituals people invent as part of their religious practices are just a cheap way of getting there. I think I rather prefer going the useful work route.

John