Light Becomes Life:
​The Miracle of Photosynthesis

​In May, an unobtrusive and unstoppable transformation intensifies. It is so common that most people fail to notice it, let alone be astonished. It is the miracle of photosynthesis – the process by which light becomes life. In every leaf unfurling toward the sun, in every blade of grass pushing upwards out of the earth, and in every strand of seaweed floating in the ocean, an ancient alchemy is rising.
 
Consider if you will, what this actually means. A photon – a tiny, massless amount of light - travels ninety-three million miles from the sun to the earth and strikes a single molecule of chlorophyll nestled inside a chloroplast which is, in turn, nestled inside the cell of a living plant being. And at the precise moment of contact, something spectacular happens.
 
The photon takes carbon dioxide gas and water molecules, which are already inside the plant, and transforms them into the sophisticated structure of sugar. In doing so, the photon’s energy splits apart the water molecules, thereby releasing oxygen into the air so we can breathe and harnessing the capacity of hydrogen atoms to make glucose. In other words, the photon’s energy takes the carbon dioxide breathed out by animals and mixes it with water to create the building blocks of organic life.
 
In photosynthesis, energy becomes matter. The formless becomes form. The ethereal becomes earthly. This is not simply a metaphor or a myth: It is a complex chemical process that is so elegant and extraordinary it is nothing less than miraculous.
 
The plant cells that accomplish this transformation are staggeringly complex and perform with a precision that human technology cannot begin to approach. Within each cell, there are between twenty and one hundred chloroplasts— tiny organelles that evolved from free-living bacteria and took up residence inside plant cells billions of years ago. And within each chloroplast sits an assembly of proteins and pigments so finely tuned that they capture nearly every photon that strikes them. These chemical reaction centers are like superbly sensitive molecular antennae. Funneling light energy through cascades of electron transfers, each step releasing a bit more of the photon's energy, each step constructing the chemical gradients that will eventually forge the bonds of glucose.
 
And glucose is the currency of all earthly life. It is the stored sunlight that powers the flight of hummingbirds, the thought of philosophers, the division of cells, and the beating of hearts. Every breath we take, every movement we make, every firing neuron in our bodies is fueled by the controlled release of energy that was once a photon of light striking a chloroplast.
 
We are all, in the most literal sense, made of sunlight. The carbon atoms in our bones, our brains, and our blood were all once floating freely in the atmosphere, breathed in by plants, fixed into sugars, eaten, and then passed along the great chain of being until they became us – living, breathing, self-aware human beings. We could say that each one of us is an impermanent arrangement of what was once sunlight. We are a brief eddy in the endless stream of energy that flows into and through the living earth.
 
The scale of photosynthesis defies imagination. Every year, it takes more than one hundred billion tons of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere and binds it into organic matter. And every year, it releases enough oxygen to replenish the entire breathable atmosphere of the planet. Forests, grasslands and algal blooms are not just simple scenery: They are literally the planet’s lungs. Breathing in carbon dioxide and breathing out oxygen, they are the  gorgeous greeness that makes all human and animal life possible.
 
Before the process of photosynthesis evolved, the earth’s atmosphere contained hardly any breathable oxygen. With high levels of carbon dioxide, nitrogen, methane, and water vapor, it was a toxic soup, incapable of supporting complex forms of life. Then, approximately 3 billion years ago in what scientists call “The Great Oxidation Event”, microscopic blue-green algae began to photosynthesize, thereby transforming the atmosphere into one that could support sophisticated, multi-cellular beings. This process was very, very slow, and it took another 2.5 billion years before the first land plants developed, paving the way for even more advanced plants to evolve, and eventually animals.
 
We owe our very existence to this process. Every person who has ever lived and every being that has ever walked, swam, slithered or flown, all existed because of  photosynthesis. The coal we burn is ancient sunlight, captured by prehistoric ferns and compressed by geological time. The natural gas we use comes from decayed marine microorganisms and plants buried under layers of sedimentary rock. The oil we extract is what remains of algae that once floated in primordial seas, harvesting photons from a younger sun. Ultimately, even the wind and rain are set in motion by the uneven heating of earth's surface, which is itself a consequence of the way plants and oceans absorb and reflect the sun's radiant gift.
 
There is a deep humility in contemplating all this. We humans, with all our cleverness, have not succeeded in replicating photosynthesis with anything approaching the efficiency of a common weed. Research on artificial photosynthesis is still in its infancy and our solar panels are crude approximations of the process. A dandelion growing in a vacant lot accomplishes this ancient alchemy far more efficiently than our most sophisticated technology. And it does so with meekness and modesty, needing nothing except water, carbon dioxide, and sunlight.
 
Perhaps this is why we take photosynthesis for granted. This miracle is simply so unassuming, so unpretentious, so unostentatious that it is easy to overlook. We tend to notice the spectacular aspects of nature — the eruption of a volcano, the out-of-control wildfire, the upheaval of an earthquake—but we usually ignore the everyday miracle of photosynthesis, failing to see it for what it is.
 
Photosynthesis is a sacred process, as well as a living testament to billions of years of evolutionary refinement because it helps to create and sustain life. It is a direct and unbroken link between each one of us and the sun – that nuclear furnace at the center of our solar system. Amazingly, at this very moment, green plants are performing the act that makes your next breath possible.
 
To truly take in the miracle of photosynthesis is to see the cosmos in miniature: the physics of light, the chemistry of life, the deep time of evolution, and the interconnectedness of all living things. It is to recognize that we are not separate from nature but embedded in it, dependent on it, and quite literally made from it. Did you know that the chlorophyll that makes plants green and the hemoglobin that makes our blood red are molecular cousins - variations on an ancient theme? Astonishing!
 
So photosynthesis is not only a set of physical, chemical, and biological processes. It is the bridge between the inanimate and the animate. It is the transformation that turns the cosmos into something that can know itself – conscious and self-aware. And it is the cosmos waking up, tasting the lusciousness of light, and becoming itself.
 
And that, surely, is a miracle.

Events

All times are Pacific Time

Tuesday, May 5 4:00 - 5:15 pm In Person
Healing Circles Langley
Mindfulness Meditation & More

Sunday, May 10 10:00 - 11:15 am In Person and on Zoom
Unity of Whidbey
Topic: Who Do You Celebrate on Mother's Day?

Tuesday, May 19 4:00 - 5:15 pm In Person
Healing Circles Langley
Mindfulness Meditation & More

Monday, June 1 7:00 - 8:00 am on Zoom
Portland Insight Meditation Community
Morning Meditation & Dhamma Reflection

Tuesday, June 2 4:00 - 5:15 pm In Person
Healing Circles Langley
Mindfulness Meditation & More

Monday, June 8 7:00 - 8:00 am on Zoom
Portland Insight Meditation Community
Morning Meditation & Dhamma Reflection

Monday, June 15 7:00 - 8:00 am on Zoom
Portland Insight Meditation Community
Morning Meditation & Dhamma Reflection

Tuesday, June 16 4:00 - 5:15 pm In Person
Healing Circles Langley
Mindfulness Meditation & More

Monday, June 22 7:00 - 8:00 am on Zoom
Portland Insight Meditation Community
Morning Meditation & Dhamma Reflection

Monday, June 29 7:00 - 8:00 am on Zoom
Portland Insight Meditation Community
Morning Meditation & Dhamma Reflection

Sunday, August 30 10:00 - 11:15 am In person and on Zoom
Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Whidbey Island
Topic: TBD

Thursday, September 17 7:00 - 8:45 pm In Person and on Zoom
Wise Spirit Buddhist Community Portland, OR
Topic: TBD

Saturday, September 19 9:00 am - 4:00 pm on Zoom and In Person
Portland Insight Meditation Community
Daylong Retreat: The Brahmaviharas and Anatta: Contradiction or Complement?

Friday, November 6 - Thursday, November 12 In Person
Cloud Mountain Retreat Center, WA
Residential retreat (six nights)
Expanding Perception and ReMembering Who We Are...Slowing Down-Sensing-Responding
Co-taught with Ayya Santacitta
More info and registration
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