The Karmapa Mikyö Dorje Centre of Buddhist Meditation and Studies was founded by Bodhisattva Lama Jesús, Jesús Javier Juanotena, with the aim of establishing a place where meditation and the teachings of Buddha could be practised with continuity.

Bodhisattva Lama Jesús, Jesús Javier Juanotena, was born on the 3rd August 1952 in Pamplona (Navarre). Throughout his life he worked ceaselessly to help as many people as possible be free from suffering. He always considered that it was necessary to do away with a concept of spirituality that distances people from commitment and social involvement, and in this respect his life was an outstanding example.

The majority of people who knew him did not realise that they were with a Meditation Master, recognised by the highest Lamas in Tibetan Buddhism, with a Bodhisattva, but his presence never left people indifferent, contact with him transformed.

He worked, amongst other things, as a journalist and writer in the press, radio and television and always contributed to the expression of a wider and freer conception of reality.

Jesús Javier Juanotena always showed solidarity with the peoples who are condemned to silence, especially with the Tibetans, who found in him a spokesman and defender of their rights.

A Great Master of Meditation, knower of the three times, he worked tirelessly for the expansion of the Dharma in the West. He alternated several retreats with the detailed instruction of a group of disciples, creating his own school within the Kagyupa line of Tibetan Buddhism, which through its European Coordinator Lama Jigme Rinpoche, recognised him as a Bodhisattva. A Bodhisattva is a totally realised being, who out of pure compassion has reincarnated in this world with the sole objective of showing others the origins of suffering and teaching them how to transform it, of leading them towards Awakening.

He knew how to combine the spirituality of the East with the materialism of the West, enabling these two apparently irreconcilable parts of the world to discover that they share the same common essence.

His activity was a permanent expression of the awakened consciousness of Buddha. His equanimity in relation to life and death was absolute. Because of this his death, which he himself announced, was also a teaching of detachment and impermanence.

He taught us that:

	"The Dharma does not belong exclusively to anyone, nor is it rigid and unchanging. The Dharma is something alive that flows spontaneously when Compassion (Bodhichitta) has taken root in the heart of a Bodhisattva. In the same way that a lotus flower opens with the sun, a Bodhisattva with his teaching gives an exact answer at the right moment to the need of any person who asks sincerely. The reply is genuine for the person concerned and, because of this, it can be said that the Dharma is the expression of Compassionate Wisdom.”