Recommendation
Introduction

Chapter 1.
The highs and lows of feeling

Heart: Shaking is the default value
Empathy: Why the why is more important than the how
Notice: Don't hit, but with a warm heart
Ecological Sensitivity: To Meet You Within Me
Umwelt: If you see the world through the eyes of a tree
Empathy: Don't ask if it hurts
Laziness: Sweet Fruit
Competition: something that needs to be properly controlled and managed, like diabetes.
Pain: A mindless device for self-protection
Walking: An act of unifying the divided me.
Different: How I Make Myself
Buen Vivir: True Life
Ecological Language: A Rich Language Leads to a Rich Ecosystem
Fun: The first thing to consider when making decisions
Eye Buddha: Mother's reflection in baby's eyes
Fantasy Wandering: The End of Wandering is the Beginning of Wandering
Ecological Renaming: The Name is Half
Bioethics: Why Medicine Must Engage with Ethics

Chapter 2.
Sex, the basis of

Earth: Lonely, Terraforming
Eggplant: The result of questions and hesitation
Mountain: Resisting gravity
Baekdudaegan: The idea that mountains cannot cross water
River: Water Highway
Seasons: Natural phenomena caused by the Earth's eccentric rotation.
Microclimate: Sunny and Shady Moxibustion
Air: Why We Should Love It
Water: Poverty in the midst of plenty
The Sea: The Womb of Humanity
Wind: A hyena wandering in search of sunshine
Light: The Designer of All Things
Sound: Remembering Things That Have Gone in the Anthropocene
Size: Relative and Subjective
Earth: The Station of Living and Non-Living Things
Ecological niche: Aim for the dance
Symbiosis: A form of life where the one who loves more is not the 'one'
Interdependence: What is seen depends on what is unseen.
Evolution: What happens when you add cooperation to the desire for diversity.

Chapter 3.
Life, born by chance

The Nature of Trees: The Buddhas Among Us
Trees and Hangul: Why I'm Proud to Be Born in This Land
Gaia: Living organism
Microbes: Why Earth is a Living Planet
Body: From an object of curse to an object of service
Pet: Put me in the stroller so I can comfort you.
Companion Plants: Soothing Your Heart at the Lowest Cost
Insects: Produce, to keep producing
Bird: The beauty of flapping wings is that they leave no trace.
Homie: Grandma and Homie get smaller as time goes by.

Chapter 4.
Tae (態), made by gathering together

Me and You: Your Shadow Is Within Me
Ecosystem: Monkey Butt and Baekdu Mountain
Community: The reason there is a sense of belonging is because there is treasure there.
Commons: Do not covet sacred land.
Forest: A combination of a daycare center, playground, hospital, gym, home, and meditation center.
Eco-City: Why Toilets and Tables Are Close Together
Tidal flats: soft forests
Biotope: Children and Grasshoppers Must Live Together
Ecological Footprint: What's Lost When We Live Off Nature's Interest?
Daisy's World: Let's Make "Honeymoon" Work
Climate Change: I Believe It, But I Won't
Growth: Why Human Nature Is Looking at the Opposite Side of Truth
Purification: Let go of the reins

Chapter 5.
Receiving, receiving and giving

Gongmu Doha: My love, don't disappear.
Solomon's Ring: How to Communicate with Animals
Philosophy of Science: The Flower of Critical Thinking
Observation: The Art of Conversation
Conservation and Preservation: Overcoming the Temperature of Difference
The Elephant in the Room: The Power of Words
Mistakes: Good Mistakes, Bad Mistakes, So-So Mistakes
Hope: that they are still alive

References
Further Reading

Always stay fresh as is,
About the empathetic heart that holds onto the evaporating green season

The author questions the relationship between humans and other living beings and restores that connection through dozens of words grouped into five chapters: ecology, fetus, sense, number, and nature.
'Umwelt' tells us that even when staying on the same tree, a woodpecker sees an oak tree differently from a fox, and that each breathing being has its own subjective world. 'Microclimate' tells us that even the ice and snow-covered ground of a deep mountainside can be a paradise for some flowers.
The word 'san-gyeol', which is not found in the dictionary, describes "a gathering of lines that resemble waves as the mountain ridge runs along" as if forming a harmony, and 'ip-sae-bit', which means "sunlight sparkling between leaves", allows us to name the thin light we encounter while walking under the trees.
The author says that adding one ecological word to the dictionary is like adding one more species to the world.
When we call its name, its existence comes to us.
When you feel the 'breath' of that existence, you begin to care deeply about it and cherish it.
When we realize that nature is alive and breathing in such a diverse way right beside us, we might begin taking small steps today to slow the climate crisis.


When I and the green 'I-it' become 'I-you'

“How can we perceive the climate crisis as ‘our own problem’ when we don’t understand nature?” Perhaps the reason we have lost the green nature today is because we have lost the ability to empathize with nature, and thus cannot regard nature’s work as ‘our own problem.’
Ecological sensitivity is the mind that asks nature why it is in pain and carefully considers what it is telling us through its gestures.
As if listening to the story of someone close to him, the author, as a tree doctor, tries to interpret the messages conveyed by the trees and forest creatures.
The method is to lower your body and watch 'lazily' for a long time.
The author suggests that we observe what changes will occur when the nature before our eyes becomes 'you' rather than just an 'object' through ecological sensitivity.


· “It’s getting close to the end of November, but I can’t help but notice that the autumn leaves aren’t turning their beautiful colors and the leaves aren’t falling on time.
Ask the trees.
“Why on earth are you doing that?” The answer the tree gets is always the same, no matter what question you ask.
“That’s because I can’t move.” That’s right, that’s because I can’t move. That’s the same answer I gave last time when I asked why I had cut off the branch like that.
(…) Trees are beings that cannot escape even an inch from the reality they face, so they cannot help but be sensitive to climate change.
The ultimate reason why trees do not change color until late and do not shed their leaves on time is global warming.
Trees in high mountains, including the fir trees on Mt. Halla, are weakening because they have nowhere left to climb.
As the Earth gets warmer, trees' respiration increases, and they use up all the nutrients they worked hard to create during the day as they gasp for air at night.” (pp. 381-382, “Hope”)

Let's live together, whispering words of nature

Languages ​​that stimulate human desires thrive, while those that are unprofitable or out of interest easily disappear.
Ecological language is so detached from human desires that it is easily forgotten and disappears.
If there is no language, then the being that language refers to cannot be seen.
The author says that in order to change the future, he has collected in this book 'words' about ecological empathy that we have ignored and forgotten.
To him, who has lived his entire life touching the soil, ‘soil’ is not something dirty, but rather a “station for living and non-living things,” and ‘light’ is the “designer of all things” who nurtures and refines the vast nature.
The 'air' that all living things share and breathe becomes "the reason why we must love one another," and 'coexisting' in such consideration becomes "a form of life where no matter how much we love, it never becomes '乙'."


· “The word ‘murr-ma’ in the Wagiman language, spoken by a small group of Australian Aboriginal people, means ‘the act of feeling for something in the water with one’s toes.’”
What do they find underwater? It's likely they're searching for various foods, like shellfish and seaweed, rather than lost keys.
(…) The ecosystem will survive only when language is rich.
Language is not just a combination of sounds; it is how we perceive and experience the world.
From this perspective, linguistic richness goes beyond mere lexical diversity; it is directly linked to the health of the ecosystems we inhabit.
(…) When a language disappears, not only does the knowledge and understanding of the natural world it contained disappear, but the ecosystem also disappears.” (pp. 88-89, “Ecological Language”)

Connecting your heart with the green nature

“As we explore nature, there will inevitably come a point where we must explore ourselves as a part of nature.” (Max Planck) We are all connected within the ecological system.
The author asks what changes will occur when we can imagine that plants and animals also suffer, when we know that trees, rooted deep in the ground, gasp for air because they cannot find a better place to live, and when we understand that saving them means saving ourselves.
At the end of the book's questions, the green nature around us becomes a place of coexistence where all breathing beings colorfully unfold their own lives.


· “They say that in the eyes of the Buddha, only the Buddha is visible.
The Buddha's eyes tell us how important it is for us to look at each other and have conversations.
The Buddha's eyes contain the meaning of deeply understanding and protecting the other person.
So what if we expand our eyes and turn our eyes to nature?
You can find irises in the eyes of pets and wild animals as well.
We can see ourselves, our reflections, in trees and flowers.
The morning dew that disappears the moment the sun rises is as pure as a baby's eyes.
“If you look closely at the dew, you can see yourself.” (Page 99, “Snow Buddha”)

"I See Breath in Leaves" is a "dictionary of the natural mind" that tells us that all beings breathe the same air and resonate in the ecosystem on Earth.
Empathy changes the world.
If we could see the world with the heart of a bird and the gentleness of a tree, if we could listen to nature's quiet voice and understand its suffering, we might be able to slow the climate crisis.
This book is a warm story of ecological humanities delivered by tree doctor Woo Jong-young, and is a 'word of nature whispering to us to live together' read by the author at the side of the green.