Ben Kramer nearly failed high school, graduating by the skin of his teeth only by testing out with a General Equivalency Diploma. Fascinated by many topics, he was fully engaged in none. That is until twenty years ago, in his 27th year, when he came into contact with Geshe Michael Roach and the Asian Classics Institute (ASI), an authentic course of study into the meaning of life, love, and truth. Now he was suddenly inspired to throw himself into a fulltime course of study from which he has not deviated to this day.
For nearly a decade, Ben lived at Diamond Mountain, Arizona.
University, where he was eventually honored to run the spiritual debate program. During this time he made regular trips to study with the monks at the great Sera Mey monastic college in southern India. His studies at Diamond Mountain culminated in a three-year silent meditation retreat alone with his wife, Kendra Rickert, a great practitioner and scholar of yoga in her own right.
Ben is now the Assistant Director of Diamond Cutter Classics (DCC) where—in addition to his efforts to develop in the art of translation—he works on maintenance, organization, and expansion of the free online ancient-text database of Asian Legacy Library (ALL). He and Kendra own and operate Nirguna Yoga in Albuquerque New Mexico, a center for traditional practice & study, where they teach regular yoga, meditation, philosophy, language, and teacher-training classes. They also havea son named Ezra, who is the greatest joy they have ever known.
