Teachers

Bodhi Path Teachers

Dawa Tarchin Phillips

Born in NYC, Dawa Tarchin Phillips grew up in a multicultural family in Europe and speaks English, German and French fluently.

A committed non-sectarian Buddhist practitioner for nearly twenty years, he teaches as an authorized teacher of the Kagyu School of Tibetan Buddhism in the U.S. and abroad.

Dawa studied and trained as an ordained monk with the late Tibetan Buddhist meditation master Gendun Rinpoche and completed two 3-year meditation retreats at Dhagpo Kundreul Ling Hermitage in France.

His Tibetan name, “Dawa Tarchin” means “Accomplished Moon.”

Now a lay meditation teacher, author and social entrepreneur, Dawa is a visiting researcher in the Department of Psychology at the University of California Santa Barbara, where his research focuses on the benefits of meditation in school children, sponsored by the U.S. Office of Education.

He is the founder and board member of The Institute of Compassionate Awareness (TICA), a 501(c)(3) registered public benefit initiative that provides secular meditation training to school children and youth.

Dawa is the resident teacher of the Santa Barbara Bodhi Path Buddhist Center and lives in Santa Barbara, California.