Rob Nairn
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'''Rob Nairn''' is a [[South Africa]]n [[Buddhism|Buddhist]] teacher, author and populariser. He is a follower of [[Tibetan Buddhism]], in the [[Karma Kagyu]] lineage.
==Academic education==
Graduating from the [[University of Rhodesia]] with an LL.B (Hons) (London), he was awarded a Commonwealth Scholarship for postgraduate studies in UK and went on to study criminology, psychology and law at [[King's College London]] and to receive a postgraduate diploma in criminology from [[Edinburgh University]]. He then returned to [[Rhodesia]] (now [[Zimbabwe]]) to become an advocate of its High Court.
==Law and academic career==
Nairn was appointed as a [[magistrate]] at 21, which was the youngest ever appointment of this type in the then Rhodesia. He went on to become the private secretary to Minister of Justice, Law and Order of that country as well as a senior [[lecturer]] in [[law]] and criminology at the then University of Rhodesia.
Moving to South Africa, Nairn became a senior lecturer in law at the University of Cape Town and later a [[professor]] of law and criminology and the Director of the Institute of Criminology at the same institution.
==Buddhist path==
A student of Buddhism since the 1960s, Nairn resigned as professor of [[criminology]] at the [[University of Cape Town]] in 1980 in order to devote himself to Buddhism.
From 1989 to 1993 he took part in a four-year isolation [[Retreat (spiritual)|retreat]] at the [[Kagyu Samyé Ling Monastery and Tibetan Centre]] in [[Scotland]].
Currently Nairn is the [[Africa]]n representative for the Venerable Dr [[Akong Rinpoche]] and is responsible for eleven Buddhist centres in South Africa and three other African countries.
As he was instructed by His Holiness the [[Dalai Lama]] to teach meditation and Buddhism in 1964 and also instructed by His Holiness the [[Rangjung Rigpe Dorje|16th Gyalwa Karmapa]] to teach [[insight meditation]] in 1979, Nairn spends a lot of his time teaching and running retreats in [[Southern Africa]] as well as the [[United Kingdom]], [[Ireland]], Iceland, the [[United States]], [[Italy]], [[The Netherlands]] and [[Germany]]. Information about booking for his southern African programme talks, courses and retreats can be obtained from Johannesburg@kagyu.org.za or Capetown@kagyu.org.za or Harare@kagyu.org.za.
==Links==
His current programme in southern African Buddhist centres and Europe can be found at [http://www.kagyu.org.za/downloads/rob_programme.doc www.kagyu.org.za]or [http://www.samyeling.org/mediashare/rd/RobProgramme.pdf on the Kagyu Samye Ling website]
* [http://www.samyeling.org/index.php?module=Pagesetter&func=viewpub&tid=10&pid=22 His profile on the www.samyeling.org site]
* [http://www.hugleidsla.is/wordpress/?page_id=18 Rob Nairn's 2007-2008 programme on the Meditation Centre for World Peace (Reykjavík, Iceland) website]
* [http://www.hugleidsla.is/wordpress/?page_id=10 His profile in English and Icelandic on the www.hugleidsla.is website]
* [http://www.samyeling.org/index.php?module=Pagesetter&func=viewpub&tid=11&pid=75 Excerpts from the book - ''Living, Dreaming, Dying'' on Kagyu Samye Ling website]
* [http://www.samyeling.org/index.php?module=Pagesetter&func=viewpub&tid=11&pid=73 Helping the Dead by Rob Nairn (Kagyu Samye Ling website)]
* [http://www.samyeling.org/index.php?module=Pagesetter&func=viewpub&tid=11&pid=74 Helping the Dying by Rob Nairn (Kagyu Samye Ling website)]
* [http://www.samyeling.org/index.php?module=Pagesetter&func=viewpub&tid=30&pid=11 Rob Nairn in the Kagyu Samye Ling website's teaching archive]
* [http://www.kaironpress.com Rob Nairn's publishers, Kairon Press, Cape Town]
* [http://www.google.co.za/search?q=rob+nairn&sourceid=navclient-ff&ie=UTF-8&rlz=1B3GGGL_enZA257ZA258/ Google Books Search: books by Rob Nairn]
* [http://www.samyelingshop.com Kagyu Samye Ling shop, Scotland - Rob Nairn's books can be ordered from here]
* [http://www.shambhala.com/html/catalog/items/isbn/978-1-59030-132-6.cfm ''Living, Dreaming, Dying'' page on the Shambhala Publications website]
==Bibliography==
* Living, Dreaming, Dying, ISBN 0-9584348-9-1
* Diamond Mind, ISBN 0-9584166-3-X
* Tranquil Mind, ISBN 0-9585057-1-3 (translated into [[Afrikaans]] as '''n Stil Gemoed'', ISBN 0-9584166-2-1). This book has also been translated into German, Italian, Shona, Spanish, Czech, Dutch and Portuguese.
* What Is Meditation?, ISBN 1-57062-715-0
* Pfungwa Dzakagadzikana, translation of Tranquil Mind in Shona, the first Buddhist book published in an African language, ISBN 0-9585057-2-I - not for sale but free for distribution. More information on the [http://www.kaironpress.com/ Kairon Press]site
==DVDs==
* Psychology of Buddhism, ISBN 0-9585057-4-8
* Psychology of meditation, ISBN 0-9585057-3-X
{{buddhism2}}
{{ModernDharmicWriters}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nairn, Rob}}
[[Category:Modern Buddhist writers]]
[[Category:Tibetan Buddhism writers]]
[[Category:University of Cape Town academics|Nairn, Rob]]
[[Category:Tibetan Buddhists from South Africa]]
[[Category:Alumni of King's College London]]
{{Buddhism-bio-stub}}