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Rob Burbea

Rob Burbea

Rob Burbea (1965-2020) was Gaia House’s much-loved resident teacher for 10 years from 2005 - 2015, when he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. During his time at Gaia House, Rob wrote Seeing That Frees: Meditations on Emptiness and Dependent Arising – an important and influential work that continues to shape and open the meditative exploration of many. Emerging from this deep experiential understanding of emptiness, Rob dedicated much of his time and energy during the last years of his life to conceiving, developing, and establishing a new body of teachings that he called ‘A Soulmaking Dharma’. Before his death, Rob initiated The Hermes Amāra Foundation (HAF), a sangha-led organisation that is being established to preserve and develop Rob's vast Dharma teaching legacy. Rob was also a guiding teacher of Freely Given Retreats; a co-founder of SanghaSeva, an organisation exploring the Dharma through international service work; and a co-initiator of DANCE, the Dharma Action Network for Climate Engagement.
An Open Letter from Rob Burbea
On the third anniversary of his death in May of 2020, we share this letter from Rob Burbea challenging dharma leaders to embrace the full implications of its ethical demands.
Is Western Dharma willing to address its own role in ecological crises? Posed a decade ago, a beloved teacher's questions reverberate.
All views are poetic. All understandings of reality, including "Nature," are interpretive. In this article, Gaia House teacher, Rob Burbea, explores how Western culture's views of "Nature" contribute to ecological crises and our opportunity to move beyond those limitations.