and insist upon "all and everything is no-self" () as the Buddha's real teaching. The anattā concept has been a subject of intense debate in Thailand, dating as far back as 1939, when the 12th Supreme Patriarch of Thailand published a book arguing that Niṛvāna was the "true-self". This dispute arose again in the 1990s when monastic scholar monk Phra Payutto published a book stating that the Dhammakaya tradition's teaching that "nibbāna is attā", was outside of Theravāda Buddhism. Payutto states in his book The Dhammakaya Case that the "Nibbāna [Nirvana] is Higher Self (attā)" teaching of Dhammakaya "insults" the Buddhist canonical and post-canonical teachings. He continues that the historic Theravāda teachings emphasize nirvana in the context of anattā, and the "nirvana as attā" is not an acceptable interpretation. Payutto has been criticized in return by a number of Thai academics and news commentators for being "narrow-minded", "attached to scriptures", "dogmatist" and a "purist". The Thai columnist Sopon Pornchokchai has accused Payutto of performing sloppy research. Although some scholars have criticized Dhammakaya's teachings on Niṛvāna in the past, these critiques garnered virtually no public attention until the 1990s when Phra Payutto published his book. According to Scott, Phra Payutto's word was largely considered authoritative in Thai Theravāda Buddhism, and thus legitimized Dhammakaya's interpretation of Niṛvāna as controversial. Wat Phra Dhammakaya has responded in different ways to the debate of self and not-self. Wat Phra Dhammakaya's assistant-abbot Luang phi Thanavuddho wrote a book about the topic in response to critics. It has been pointed out that followers of the temple themselves generally tend to not show much interest in the selfnot-self debate and are more concerned about how Dhammakaya meditation improves their mind. The temple often uses positive terms to describe Niṛvāna. Scott states that Wat Phra Dhammakaya publications and discourse describe Niṛvāna as being the state of supreme happiness, rather than the traditional Theravāda's via negativa description of "nirvana is not samsara". She states that this may be one of the reasons why the temple seems so attractive to new members. In its teachings on how meditation can help improve health and the quality of modern life, the temple has been compared to the Vipassanā Movement of S.N Goenka. The temple's emphasis on meditation is expressed in several ways. Accessories for meditation are for sale in stores around the temple, and every gathering that is organized by the temple will