Why is there no ascension among Buddhists, the people following Buddha Dhamma all over the world except (maybe) among a few? The reason is that the pali thripitaka has been wrongly translated to English and then to Sinhala. Maghadi is language of sound. It is meant only to be SPOKEN. To write Maghadi, pali was invented. The people who translated the Dhamma did a WORD to WORD translation which cause the path to nibbana to be closed.
Simple example. Anichcha – has been wrongly translated to Anithya. Anithya is impermanence. Anichcha means a COMPLETELY DIFFERENT THING. It means that which cannot be maintained to ones liking. It is a THING OF THE MIND. Anithya on the other hand is a state of the Universe. Anithya does NOT always bring Dukkha or Duka or unhapiness or sadness ( or similar states).The death of someone in the next town does not make one unhappy. The death was cause by anithya but as one had no bond to that person no emotion,there is no sadness. BUT if one had a bond to that person in the next town, then that persons death will cause sadness becuase the bond is now broken. The bond – ichcha. You want that person to go on. Anichcha ALWAYS brings Dukha or Dukkha as one cannot control anything and keep them in the same state. Anichca is totally a state of the mind where as Anithya is a state of entropy. The way ichcha occurs are
ichcha
patichcha
abhichcha
Nichcha
athta
uddachca or kukuchcha
patichcha
mahechca
laabichca
marichca
aththichch
vichikichca

The Maghadhi words of the Buddha, written correctly but wrongly translated, wrongly understood which led ALL except a few, astray. This itself is SANGHA BEDA.( This too is misunderstood as causing dissention or disharmony among two monks/priests etc.) But that is another discussion.