Rob nairn biography

Robert G. Nairn (died 30 September 2023) was a.
Robert G. Nairn was a South African Buddhist teacher, author and populariser.
Rob Nairn was the representative in Africa for The Venerable Dr Akong Rinpoche with responsibility for eleven Buddhist centres in four African countries.

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Rob Nairn is an international author and presenter of Buddhism and meditation. He is head representative of the Karma Kagyu lineage in Southern Africa. Since 1964 he has trained with many of the great teachers, and in 1989 he entered a four-year retreat in isolation from the world where he studied and practised ancient methods within the Mahamudra tradition of the Karma Kagyu Lineage. What follows is the transcript of an interview with Brett Almond at the Samye Dzong centre in London. The text is unaltered to maintain much of the realism of the interview.

Do you see enlightenment as an instantaneous thing where one day you are a normal human being and the next you become enlightened or do you see it more as a gradual process of realisation?

Enlightenment is a term we hear quite a lot, and obviously can't understand because it is an experience that arises beyond the conceptual mind. So maybe the difficulty we have is in understanding that the mind that thinks about enlightenment is not the mind that becomes enlightened- it actually stands in the way of enlightenment. The mind h

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A native of Australia, Rob Nairn received his Bachelor of music with Distinction from the Canberra School of Music and a post-graduate diploma from the Berlin Musikhochschule by courtesy of a two-year DAAD German Government Scholarship.

Rob's experience covers Contemporary, Jazz, traditional Orchestral, and Baroque and Classical "authentic performance" Ensembles. His teachers have included Klaus Stoll, Tom Martin, and Max McBride. He has performed with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, the London Philharmonic, the English Chamber Orchestra, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the London Sinfonietta, The Melbourne Symphony and the Orchestre Revolutionnaire et Romantique. He has acted as guest Principle Bassist with the Halle Orchestra, the London Mozart players, the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and held the position of Principle bass with the Australian Chamber orchestra and the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra.

In the Early Music world he holds the position of Principal Double Bass with the Handel & Haydn Society in Boston, MA; he also works with the Washington Bach

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When did you first know you wanted to be a musician and how did you come to know it?

I think from the age of about 10 I knew that being a musician was the only thing I ever wanted to do. I can’t recall a specific incident—I actually don’t think there was one—but I was always drawn to music and never seriously contemplated another career.

Who was the teacher or mentor who most inspired you when you were growing up and what did you learn from that person?
There were several people but first was my father. He is not a trained musician but he listens with such passion. I remember listening to great old recordings of Beethoven symphonies on Sunday afternoons in our home; I’m sure he didn’t know what he was instilling in me then. There have been several musicians of course who were huge influences on me later—my teachers Max McBride, Klaus Stoll, and Tom Martin; the cellist Danny Yeadon, with whom I worked in Florilegium in London for many years; and others with whom I have had the great pleasure to work: Anner Bylsma, Pieter Wispelwey, Frans Bruggen …

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