Once a monk Maulikyaputta asked the Buddha several metaphysical questions. The Buddha promised to answer all his questions after one year, provided the monk observed complete unbroken silence and simply watched his thoughts as they passed through his mind. Maulikyaputta spent one silent year just watching his thoughts. At first, his mind was a humming beehive assailed by a multitude of diverse thoughts. Gradually they began to subside and by the end of the year, he was totally free of the tyranny of horizontal thinking. A year later, the Buddha appeared before the monk. The monk bowed low before the master and confessed that he now had no questions, not a single one.