The Dhammakaya Tradition or Dhammakaya Movement, sometimes spelled as Thammakaai movement, is a Thai Buddhist Tradition founded by Luang Pu Sodh Candasaro in the early 20th century. It is associated with several temples descended from Wat Paknam Bhasicharoen in Bangkok. The Tradition is distinguished from other Thai Buddhist traditions by its teachings on the Buddhist concept of Dhammakaya and the practice of Dhammakaya Meditation (Vijja Dhammakaya), a method which scholars have connected to the Yogavacara Tradition, which predates the 19th-century reform of Thai Buddhism. The Dhammakaya Tradition is known for its teaching that there is a "true self" connected with Nirvana, which was notably criticized in the 1990s as an alleged contradiction of the Buddhist doctrine of anatta (not-self). The Dhammakaya Tradition is seen by its followers as a form of Buddhist revivalism pioneered by Luang Pu Sodh Candasaro. Buddhist Studies scholars have described aspects of its practices as having characteristics of religious apologetics, and Buddhist modernism. Features of the tradition include teaching meditation in a group, teaching meditation simultaneously to monastics and lay people, and an emphasis on lifelong ordination. Nomenclature Dhammakaya Tradition refers to a modern Buddhist tradition that has emerged in Thailand, but is based on older Yogavacara, c.q. Tantric Theravada teachings, which have survived the 19th and 20th century modernisation of Thai Buddhism. Dhammakaya means 'Dhamma body', referring to an "inner Buddha nature," which its practitioners aim to realize through meditation. According to the anthropologist and Asian studies scholar Edwin Zehner, the term Dhammakaya (also spelled Thammakai) has four contextual meanings, though all four are "written and pronounced exactly alike": In the first sense, it refers to the doctrinal concept of "dharma-body" as found in Pali and Sanskrit texts. Second, it means the "inner dharma-body" that is a goal of the Dhammakaya meditation practitioner. Third, it refers to all the meditation centers and teachers who preach a Dhammakaya meditation style in Thailand. Fourth, it refers to Wat Phra Dhammakaya and its associated institutions – the largest temple in the Dhammakaya Tradition. The term Dhammakaya, states Zehner, has close affinities to the Mahayana Buddhism concept of Dharmakaya (spiritual essence of the Buddha), and the word appears in many early Pali and Sanskrit texts, where its early meaning was "the collection of the dhamma". However, the Dhammakaya Tradition's conception of the "Dhammakaya" doctrine is different from the definition found in the Pali-English dictionary of the Pali Text Society,