Loob

In Philippine Culture, Loob or Kalooban refers to one's inner self, or, more specifically, to the internal dimension of a person's identity. It's external counterpart is labas - the physical, outward appearance.<ref="Mercado">Mercado, Leonardo N. (September 1994). [ttp://www.crvp.org/book/Series03/III-8/contents.htm The Filipino Mind: Philippine Philosophical Studies II (Cultural Heritage and Contemporary Change Series III Asia)]. Washington, D.C.: Council for Research in Values and Philosophy. pp. 226 pages. ISBN 1565180631.</ref> Loob is a core concept in Filipino Psychology, a field which is unthinkable without both the internal and external dimensions, "loob/labas".<ref="Kapwa">de Guia, Katrin (2005). Kapwa: The Self in the Other: Worldviews and Lifestyles of Filipino Culture-Bearers. Pasig City: Anvil Publishing, Inc. p. 378. ISBN 971271490X.</ref>

Loob or kalooban has been compared to similar concepts in other southeast asian cultures, such as the Indonesian concept of batin or kebatinan.<ref="Mercado"/>

Concepts whose expression involves "loob"

As a core concept of value, Loob and its variants are a critical aspect of numerous Filipino value constructs, of which the following are examples:

• Utang na loob - a debt of gratitude
  • also May utang na loob a good person because that person understands what it means to owe a debt of gratitude
  • also Nakikingutang ng loob, to seek a favor from someone
• Ipagkaloob - to entrust
• lagay ng loob - mood, one's state of mind or feeling
• lakas-loob - courage
• tibay ng loob - inner strength
• tining ng loob - clarity of thinking, feeling, volition
• kababaang loob - humility, literally "lowness of the inside"
• kabutihang-loob - good naturedness
• kagandahang loob - generosity, noblemindedness
• may kusang-loob - one who does his work without prodding
• payapang loob - a peaceful, calm person
• mapagkaloob - a generous person
• mahina ang loob - a coward
• malakas ang loob - a daring person
• malamig ang loob - an indifferent person
• pikit ang loob - one who is blind to injustice
• mabigat ang loob - the state of being sad, heavy-hearted
• maluwag sa loob - one's experience of a state of being willing, cheerfully ready, literally to feel "loose/open on the inside"
• wala sa loob - a state of being unwilling, literally to "not have it in oneself"
• tapat na kalooban - the state of having a sincere inner being
• masasamang-loob - criminals, literally, "those with bad inner beings"
• kapalagayang loob - confidante, intimate
• pampalubag-loob - consolation
• kagaanang-loob - something to pacify intense emotion such as anger

The word loob, simply taken as "inside" and not a construct, is also used for "looban," which means an interior compound, or community; and for the term "manloloob", which means "robber," literally "someone who enters."