Thanks again guys. This place has tons of amazing people. I'm sorry to hear of everyone else's losses as well.
I mentioned this to MFJ on AIM tonight, but I'm up late and will repeat myself, yay!:
When I try to think of buddha nature, Zen-mind and Lovingkindness my mind always turns to dogs (mine in particular, as it's the one I knew best). They're entire life is governed completely by pure feelings, feelings that arn't marred by what we think of as 'thoughts', just pure feeling...they don't think 'OH MAN! I love this guy!' they just have the...'I love this guy'-feeling or the 'WOW I love when my tummy is rubbed'-feeling. They don't spend time trying to explain all these feelings in a language, or in a way that fits with this or that. They just feel, fully, all the time. It's amazing when you think about it.
Also, they are a perfect illustration of loving kindness. 100% love for all things with no thought of ego or pride. Lovingkindness has been critiqued by many, often with the simple illustration of 'How can you possibly love somone like Hitler?' and the simplest answer is 'You don't have to like somone in order to love them.' No matter how much an evil person beats a dog, or forces them to fight, or does any number of other evil things, the dog is always trying to show love.
Of course these are generlizations, but they are just used to illustrate a point.
Dogs are an infinite sorce of karma for the world that I for one appreciate. I know somwhere, soon, a baby will be born with the cappacity for infinite love because of the compassion of my late K9 best friend. While an infant with no pride or ego, this will show, and I can only hope that through development of a mature concious, it will be retained.
Everything effects everything.
Buddha Nature, Dog Nature, what's the difference...
Pardon typos, I'm on a bad computer that doesn't process text very fast (ie: I type a paragraph and then watch it form on screen a few letters a second, heh)
/mumbling