UK Dharma Teacher Teri West

Teri was ordained by Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh in 2000 into the Order of Interbeing and as a lay Dharma teacher in 2016.

Teri has been a student of Thay’s since 1988 and is a member of the North Devon Sangha. She is a storyteller, singer, musician, part-time poet and sometime clown.

Teri was ordained into the Order of Interbeing in 2000, receiving the Dharma name ‘True Door of Virtue’ (chan duc mon) and the Lamp Transmission as a Dharma teacher in 2016.

Teri has pursued various occupations since leaving home as a teenager. By her mid-40s she began working as a professional storyteller and singer and as a member of an improvising clown group in the Nose to Nose school of clowning.

She currently takes to the stage at every opportunity, using song to take a Dharma message into the unlikely environment of the world of cabaret and co-led in February and March 2018 two sold-out weekend courses ‘Clown and the Art of Mindfulness’ at the European Institute for Applied Buddhism in Germany.

Teri was fortunate enough to be invited to Plum Village in 1988 as a guest, with friends of Thay who had worked with him in the ’70s on founding a charity for Vietnamese refugees.

The 1988 experience was powerful; Teri bought ‘Breathe, you are Alive!’ which, together with ‘The Miracle of Mindfulness’ brought buddhism into a grounded, practical form that Teri could relate to, having previously read somewhat intellectual, complicated theories.

She has been a student of Thay’s ever since, working on organising retreats, particularly those that welcome families, founding the westcountry sangha, becoming a member of the Core Community (Order of Interbeing) in the year 2000, and ordained as a Dharma teacher in 2015.