Alan Arkin to appear at benefit for ICD meditation center in Palm Springs

Winston Gieseke
The Desert Sun
Academy Award-winning actor Alan Arkin will speak at the Insight Community of the Desert on Dec. 7

Founded in 2012 and located near downtown Palm Springs, Insight Community of the Desert (ICD) is an all-inclusive meditation center whose mission is to cultivate mindfulness, peace and compassion through practices grounded in Buddhist teachings.

On Saturday, Dec. 7, ICD will host a fundraiser with Academy Award-winning actor Alan Arkin, who will discuss his 50-plus years of spiritual practice and how his dedication to a spiritual life has become a central focus of his life and work.

Arkin, who won an Oscar for his performance in “Little Miss Sunshine,” says he discovered meditation after determining that professional success wasn’t an automatic path to happiness. “By the time I was 30, 31, I’d accomplished everything I'd ever hoped and dreamed to accomplish, and I wasn't happy,” he says. “I didn't understand it. It didn't make sense to me that I wasn't happy. So, I started exploring. I explored therapy for a while, and I worked very hard at that, and I reached a point where my therapist said — after I complained about something — 'Well, I never promised you a rose garden.' I got angry, and I said, 'I want my rose garden. There are people out there that have rose gardens and I want to be one of them.' So, I looked elsewhere, and I found a couple of people who looked like they were happy, and it turned out they were involved in meditation and a lot of exploration and Eastern philosophy, so I started pursuing that and found that it was the most exciting adventure I'd ever embarked on.”

Practicing meditation helped Arkin realize that he was looking in the wrong direction for happiness. “I was looking for stuff to make me happy,” he says. “I was looking for my stature in the theatrical world to make me happy. I was thinking that because I had reached a certain stature in the industry that all of my internal problems were going to be solved. And I realized that there was still an enormous amount of work to do on myself. Places in me that I had not looked at. Fears that I had never examined.”

Arkin expects the discussion at ICD “will be mostly about the interior life. I suppose there will be some questions about my career, but my career for 50 years has been entwined with interior work, so there'll be some dovetailing there.”

ICD's mission is to cultivate mindfulness, peace and compassion through Buddhist practices.

Dr. Stephen Pickard, ICD's program and events coordinator, is excited about the occasion. “Mr. Arkin's amazingly generous gift to offer a benefit appearance for Insight Community of the Desert has touched us all very deeply. He offered to do this fundraiser to help us maintain a meditation center in Palm Springs. We are so thankful for this afternoon with Alan and for more people to know about us and our mission of wisdom and compassion.”

To order tickets, visit ICD’s website at desertinsight.org.

A Contemplative Life of Meditation with Alan Arkin and Friends

Saturday, Dec. 7

3-6 p.m.

Insight Community of the Desert, 1111 E. Tahquitz Canyon Way, building C, 2nd floor, Palm Springs

Benefiting Insight Community of the Desert

Tickets: $125-$1,000 donation

Information: (888) 280-6777, desertinsight.org