on donations and merit making to build temples and operate its organization. It runs consumer-savvy media placement and billboards to deploy "consumerist competitive and advertising strategy with the traditional belief of merit accumulation which ends up in the merchandization of merit", states sociologist Apinya Fuengfusakul. The donors are promised rewards in future rebirths, and their donations are recognized in public ceremonies. Although many of the temple's methods and teachings were not unique to Wat Phra Dhammakaya, it was noticeably criticized in the late 1990s during the Asian economic crisis due to its size and the major fundraising the temple was doing at the time. There is also tendency among teachers and practitioners to dismiss and even revile merit-making in favor of other Buddhist teachings about detachment and attaining Nirvana, for which Buddhist Studies scholar Lance Cousins has coined the term ultimatism. According to Asian Studies scholar Monica Falk, the commercialization of Buddhism has become a political issue in Thailand. Wat Phra Dhammakaya notably focuses on the Dhammakaya meditation method and its modern teaching practices make it stand out from mainstream Thai Buddhism. The combination of the traditional and the modern can also be found in the temple's teachings, in which intellectual Buddhism and Thai folk religion meet. The temple attempts to revive the local temple's role as a spiritual community center, but does so within a format that is meant to fit with modern society and customs. According to the temple's active propagation philosophy, in the present day and age people will not come to the Buddhist temple anymore, because the temple is no longer the center of community life. The temple therefore must seek out the laypeople in society in an active way, so as to promote virtue both in the temple at home and school. An important part of this active propagation style is the role of the layperson. The temple has been noted for its emphasis on lay participation. According to McDaniel, Wat Phra Dhammakaya emphasizes cleanliness, orderliness and quiet, as a morality by itself, and as a way to support meditation practice. In Wat Phra Dhammakaya, ceremonies are commonly held on Sundays rather than the traditional lunar calendar-based Uposatha days. Free buses drive to the temple. Lay people joining the ceremonies are strongly encouraged to wear white, a traditional custom. No smoking, drinking or flirting is allowed on the temple terrain, nor newspapers, animals or fortune-telling.