Oppose Although these two concepts are similar they should be treated separately and scholarly research haven done so Treating them as one borders on original research Early on in the history of Buddhism the three seal of dharma has stated that there is no atman in any dharma Thus proponents of Buddha nature has sometimes tried to distance it from atman to avoid direct contradiction with seals of dharma We should respect the philosophical and historical effort to distinguish the two within Buddhism An outsider of Buddhism may think the two are pretty much the same but that shouldn t be presented as an insider s view of Buddhism or scholarly majority view by merging them