Rob Burbea

Jacob Robert Burbea (September 5, 1965 – May 7th, 2020) was a prominent Buddhist teacher, musician, and climate activist.

He is known for his contributions to modern Buddhism and innovative teachings as the resident teacher at the Gaia House in South Devon.

Born to a Sephardic Jewish father and an English mother who converted to Judaism, Rob grew up in a strict Jewish household in North London.

Despite the religious observance, his childhood was rather conventional, marked by a love for skateboarding, bike-riding, and football.

In his teenage years Rob began to explore spirituality through music, nature, and solitude.

Rob initially went to Oriel College, Oxford, to study physics but later switched to psychology.

After completing his degree, he moved to the United States to study jazz guitar at Berklee College of Music.

He further pursued a Master of Music at the New England Conservatory of Music and enrolled as a doctoral student at Brandeis University.

During his time in the U.S., Rob began meditating at the Cambridge Insight Meditation Centre where he met his mentor, Narayan Helen Liebensen.

He also started attending retreats led by Thanissaro Bhikkhu.

Rob returned to the UK for a year in 1998, deepening his Dharma practice and, in 2002, committed to a year-long retreat at Gaia House, where he later became a resident teacher until 2015.

Rob wrote the influential book Seeing That Frees: Meditations on Emptiness and Dependent Arising. In the years following the publication of that book he developed a body of teachings he called "A Soulmaking Dharma."

His teachings emphasized a radical rethinking of Buddhist tenets, influenced by Western thinkers like Carl Jung and James Hillman as well as the Buddha and Nagarjuna.

Rob was an early proponent of climate awareness in the Dharma community.

He was one of the key forces behind the Dharma Action Network for Climate Engagement (DANCE) and was actively involved in Extinction Rebellion.

Rob was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2015, which led him to step down from his role at Gaia House.

He continued to host retreats, with his last being less than 6 months before he died on May 7, 2020.