Richard Collins: Connecting the Arts and Humanities to Everyday Life

Your CSUB, Winter 2013. Photo by Jennifer Burger.

Two and a half years ago, Dr. Richard Collins flew to California to interview for a deanship at CSU Bakersfield. With his luggage lost by the airline, he showed up in his traveling clothes: jeans and a Polo shirt. But he was unflappable—he'd just been ordained as a Zen Buddhist monk days earlier at a meditation retreat.

No matter the costume—whether it be a suit and tie, a black monk's robe, or even white fencing gear (he's also a burgeoning fencer)—Collins keeps an even keel.

"Some people think that Zen is some sort of transcendental state of serenity," Collins said. "But really, Zen practice is largely just a matter of living in the present moment and seeing things the way they are an not getting too stressed out because things arent's the way we think they are supposed to be. Without this attitude, I don't think I could handle being a dean, where nothing is ever exactly as you'd like it to be."

For the rest of the story, see pages 5-6 of Your CSUB, Winter 2013 (interactive flip book or pdf file).