Mark Bunn – Dharmic Living Founder & Corporate Health Speaker

The Back Story

I was a little (lot) weird from a young age. At 16, thanks to my legendary mum, I was devouring the New Age books on mind-body medicine. At 19, while trying not to embarrass myself as an AFL footballer, I learnt Transcendental Meditation (TM) and meditated in toilet cubicles before games while my teammates hyped themselves up to rock n roll music. (The meditating didn’t make me any better, but I was less stressed about how ordinary I was!) In 1994, I was likely the first footballer ever to use yogic nasal breathing during games and my pre & post training Surya Namaskars (Yoga Sun Salutations) were much to my teammates amusement.

Fascinating by human performance, I completed an Honours Degree in Sports Science (Exercise Physiology), though was frustrated and confused by the constantly changing and often contradictory advice of Western health science. Soon after however, my life was changed forever. I was given a book on the ancient Eastern science of Ayurveda and Ayurvedic medicine.

I read about how health and wellbeing were not actually complicated at all. Eating was not about calories, fats and whether or not we grind our bloody linseeds. It was about enjoyment, social connection and nourishing the body’s deeper intelligence. Exercise was not about training zones, having tight buns or sporting a six-pack (though I’d probably take either now!), it was about unifying mind and body and cultivating meditation-like flow and zone states. Most importantly, the purpose of life was not simply to stay alive or to have a nice house, it was about fulfilling our unique, natural duty (our Dharma) and growing towards higher states of consciousness (enlightenment).

Not long after this, I travelled to south-east Asia and was fascinated to see that most of the supposed ‘simple folk’ - who barely possessed a roof over their heads and the clothes on their backs - were nearly always smiling or laughing. Struck by the irony of Westerners, supposedly with the best health system in the world, drowning in depression, anxiety, stress, insomnia, obesity and a myriad of other conditions, I began researching into the time-tested Eastern traditions of health care. 

All I knew of the Eastern world at the time was how good they were at fitting 25 people on the back of one motorbike and creating curries that could have you sweating at ten paces! I soon learnt however, that they possessed thousands of years of the most profound health wisdom. I learnt that from the Eastern perspective, ill health and chronic disease were seen to be more a result of violating certain natural laws than an inevitable part of ageing. Our bodies were understood to possess their own in-built wisdom, and if we lived in harmony with our inner wisdom and the eternal cycles of nature, happiness, intelligence, and good health would generally follow.

I was blessed to have the opportunity to complete formal studies in Maharishi Ayurveda, and then to travel around Australia for almost two years with an international team of doctors trained in this approach, I got to sit in on hundreds of personal consultations. Patients would come in with chronic conditions that had been plaguing them for weeks, months, even years. Time after time, with often nothing more than changes to their diet, daily routine or lifestyles (many of which form the basis of Dharmic Living), they experienced profound improvements in their symptoms. Many shed excess kilograms they had not been able to budge in years. Some began sleeping again after months of insomnia. Others experienced significant relief from—or even overcame—longstanding medical conditions. Nearly all regained lost energy and enjoyed a renewed zest for life.

Fascinated by the idea that good health was actually our natural state, I began researching indigenous wisdom and the healthiest and longest living peoples of our time. I was astounded to find that even today, there are cultures living right under our noses where a large percentage of individuals live exceptionally long lives, experiencing few of the physical or mental diseases that are widespread in the Western world. 

Throughout all my studies, what became most apparent was that there were certain basic principles of health (health wisdoms) common to all long-surviving indigenous cultures, time-tested natural health sciences and the age-old Eastern traditions of knowledge. Individuals and cultures throughout time that have tended to enjoy relatively happy, disease-free and spiritually enlightened lives, have more often than not followed these universal, timeless truths. 

These timeless, age-old, simple and most cases ‘common sense’ wisdoms are foundation of Dharmic Living. Its goal is to answer one key question …

The person behind the story - Just a bumbling, unenlightened fellow seeker

Anyone who knows me will tell you that I am about as far away from being enlightened as Kim Kardashian is from having to buy her clothes from an Op-shop.

In my 40's, I finally realised that I had been shame-based my entire life. Despite what would have looked from the outside as a fairly successful life, as all shame-based people know, there was a significant cost. The grip of perfectionism, fear of falling short and never wanting to lose face, took an extreme toll in terms of my health, my energy, as well as my ability to experience spontaneity and joy in life.

As a teenager, I always felt skinny and wanted to be bigger and stronger. As a footballer, I was consumed by the fear of failure not the rewards of success. Even after 20 years as a professional speaker, I can still experience pre-talk anxiety, scared that I will stuff something up (or that my fly is undone … again!)

Having experienced the sadness and grief of losing a wife to breast cancer, the incredible fatigue of four years of heavy metal poisoning (and many related health challenges), and still swearing at my phone or threatening to throw my computer out the window in frustration when it doesn’t work, my life is far from perfect. Although I'm infinitely better than I was 5,10 or 20 years ago, I’m still a long (loooong!) way away from the state of inner bliss and contentment, that so many of the great spiritual teachers suggest is our natural human state.

It is however, this much talked about state of inner peace and serenity, that I have always longed for. I suspect most of us do. I’ve loved reading and hearing about people - the saints, yogis, mystics and other spiritually advanced folk - that have found a way to live beyond anxiety, anger, sadness, fear and the like. After decades of study and personal practice, I too now sense that there is an inner realm beyond our human suffering. There’s something within us – an infinite reservoir of intelligence, creativity and bliss - that if we can get in touch with it, we can transform our lives. We can get beyond the shame, the fears, the melancholy, the isolation, the self-doubt and pain, and live how we were actually designed to - with great joy, freedom and connection with others.

This again is the idea behind and the ultimate aim of Dharmic Living. It is my attempt to put the timeless wisdom of life into a practical way we, the ignorant and unenlightened, can start climbing the mountain of life. If the mountain top represents the pinnacle of human evolution (Self-realization or the experience of permanent inner contentment), what can we do to climb that mountain? 

While I’m still a long way from the mountain top, I truly believe we can all get there. In fact, I think it’s where we’re all designed to be. 

Dharmic Living is my attempt to keep climbing the mountain of life. If it is of any use to you, I’d love you to join me. (That way we can help pick each other up whenever we take a tumble!)

Extras / Notes; (not included)

In 2015, I spent 5 months, 7 days a week in The Netherlands at a TM Teacher training course, watching 1000+ hours of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi unearthing incredible nuggets of ancient Vedic wisdom.

After 20-odd speaking to business groups, schools and health professionals in multiple countries,

we answer the big questions in life – 

i) Who or what am I? 

ii) Why am I here? 

iii) How do I fulfill it? 

… and