insists upon absolute non-self as the Buddha's real teaching. The controversy on the true nature of anatta dates as far back as 1939, when the 12th Supreme Patriarch of Thailand published a book arguing that Nirvana was the "true-self". This dispute arose again in the 1990s when monastic scholar monk Phra Prayudh Payutto published a book criticizing the Dhammakaya tradition's teachings on nirvana. Phra Payutto states, in his book The Dhammakaya Case, that the "Nibbāna [Nirvana] is Higher Self (atta)" 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. Phra Payutto has, however, been criticized in return by a number of Thai academics and journalists for being "dogmatist" and promoting religious intolerance. Although some scholars have criticized Dhammakaya's teachings on nirvana in the past, these critiques garnered virtually no public attention until the 1990s when Phra Payutto published his book. According to religion scholar Rachelle Scott, Phra Payutto's word was largely considered authoritative in Thai Theravada Buddhism, and thus legitimized Dhammakaya's interpretation of nirvana as controversial. According to proponents and teachers of the tradition such as the monk Luang Por Sermchai, it tends to be scholars who hold the view of absolute non-self, whereas "several distinguished forest hermit monks" such as Luang Pu Sodh, Ajahn Mun and Ajahn Maha Bua hold Nirvana as true self, because they have "confirmed the existence of a Higher or Real Self (attā)" by their own realizations. He further states that Nirvana cannot be not-self because it not a compounded and conditioned phenomenon. Religious studies scholar Potprecha Cholvijarn notes that Luang Pho Nong Indasuvaṇṇo, one of Luang Pu Sodh's early meditation teachers, takes a similar position. According to Luang Pho Nong, Nirvana as understood by Buddhist practitioners with direct experience differs from the understanding of Nirvana generally taken by scholars. Williams summarizes the views of Luang Por Sermchai and states that these ways of reading Buddhism in terms of "... a true Self certainly seem to have been congenial in the East Asian environment, and hence flourished in that context where for complex reasons Mahayana too found a ready home". According to Williams, the Dhammakaya-related debate in Thailand leads to an appreciation that According to James Taylor, a scholar of Religious Studies and Anthropology, Dhammakaya's doctrinal views on nirvana and