[codespokerbonus]

So to put it simply, what you are saying is that you equate Buddha Nature with the mind of a Buddha.

Yeah but, no but... sort of...
Without reaching for my Tibetan tomes, I recall being told that the Dharmakaya was either purified (Buddha) or impure (Everyone else including poor slug). There are different terms for both, I'm certain of that but Buddha Nature is the potential for eventual enlightenment. A slug, of course can't get enlightened but whilst there is ignorance, volitional formations will arise, consciousness etc. etc.
The death of the slug is the end of the 'slug episode' but, as the twelve links demonstrate, it ain't the end.

The spark will jump, Bardo (for Tibetans) will occur etc. If this didn't happen then Buddhism would be irrelevant as death would be the annihilation of all becoming. Buddha would have said "Chill out guys, when you croak it's all over anyway LOL" (Perhaps not LOL)

That's kind of what I mean. If I get time to dust off my Geoffrey Hopkins or Geshe Kelsang books, I'll come up with the goods but I'm a bit busy at the moment.

I figure that we're dealing (to some extent) with the reification of an abstract. Kind of like insisting that all sense data is actually illusory because Buddha once compared it to an illusion. There's a whopping difference but folks do get the two mixed up.