Death to Poochy

[Eddie33]

Last Thursday I was sitting on my couch preparing a nice salad for myself watching The Last Mimsy. I was almost finished when my dog Cocoa comes to my side with his hungry face on. So I give him a small peice of slightly stale cheese. Before I know it he's rolling on the floor, growling and the whole nine yards.
Long story short I watched him die. He was pretty old and we had him for about 15 years so we were kind of just waiting for him to die.
The thing is I ended up crying for almost the entire rest of the day. I couldn't beleive how much I cried. I didn't think I would dry at all when he died.

I'm not sure if there was really a point to this post. Just felt like talking about it. And I kind of would like to hear peoples perspectives on death. Like if it is really, what happens when you die, etcetera. In my reflections of it I would have thoughts such as Cocoa being a part of me and when he died a part of me also died. Thenn I would also use the word illusion to say that nothing really died, per se, it's just a shift in energy or something of the sorts. Still all are perceptions, so the accuracy of there truth is inevitably doubtful at least for me. I suppose some day I'll make some definitive sense out of it all.. Till then I just wanna hear the thoughts of "others"

Seeya

[Scott]

This has nothing to do with death...but I love dogs.  They truly are man's best friend.  I can understand why you had to cry.

[sadhak]

Hi Eddie,
Grieving is a natural part of letting go. Sometimes there may be a feeling of unfinished business inside that makes one cry a lot. It depends a lot on what your relationship with Cocoa was.

Long ago, when a dog in the family whom I was very close to died after 13 years, I did not cry, but could let her go peacefully. On the other hand I cried inconsolably when a stray I barely knew for a week but was trying to treat for severe mange was poisoned by somebody. I don't know whether this helps you with insights to your own grieving.

[Shanti]

In this clip Adyashanti talks about the loss of his dog :
Loss of the Buddha DOG

[ranger]

Eddie, I'm very sorry for your loss.  We lost our 15 year old dog last year on Veteran's Day.  Everyone on this forum has their own ideas of afterlife, and their ways finding consolation, but during an event like this, the ideas and consolations don't mean all that much, and sometimes there is just taking one breath and then another.  

Yet in my experience it's far better to experience the grief - while trying to forget all notions of what spiritual people should experience.  A long time ago I managed to stuff a serious loss under a lot of spiritual rhetoric - "God's will" and such notions.  I was new to spiritual practice, and very naive.  Things don't stay stuffed, but can do a lot of harm while they are.

Personally I have no worries about the well being of loved ones, of all species, who have left this life.  We are the ones who have difficulty.

"They say there's a place where dreams have all gone,
They never said where, but I think I know,
It's miles through the night, just over the dawn,
On this road that will take me home."            

"Going Home" by Mary Fahl