Born in New York City, Dawa Tarchin Phillips grew up in a multicultural family in Europe and speaks English, German and French fluently. After being educated in Germany and the US, he pursued advanced studies in the arts on a World Study Scholarship from Virginia Commonwealth University, followed by a career in the entertainment industry. Within a few years, Dawa’s increasing desire to be of greater service to others propelled him to leave his music career behind in order to work with severely ill cancer and cardiac patients in Germany.

While in his early twenties, Dawa met the late Tibetan Buddhist meditation master Lama Gendun Rinpoche and subsequently completed two 3-year meditation retreats under his guidance at Dhagpo Kundreul Ling in France. There, Dawa studied, practiced and taught as an ordained Buddhist monk for many years before resettling in back the US. His Tibetan name, "Dawa Tarchin" means "Accomplished Moon".

In 2007 Dawa founded Empowerment Holdings, LLC - a firm that coaches business professionals and corporations in principles of awakened living, conscious business pursuits and the success skills of right livelihood. A trusted council to many, he presently is a visiting researcher at the University of California Santa Barbara, coaches Empowerment Holdings’ senior clients and offers programs in the U.S. and Europe on Awareness Leadership and Sacred Entrepreneurship™. To give back to the community Dawa serves as resident teacher of a public meditation center in Santa Barbara and is the founder of The Institute of Compassionate Awareness, a 501c3 public benefit initiative that provides secular mindfulness and awareness training to school children age 10 and above.