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. Loob is a core concept in Filipino Psychology, a field which is unthinkable without both the internal and external dimensions, "loob/labas".

Loob or kalooban has been compared to similar concepts in other Southeast Asian and Oceanian cultures, such as the Indonesian concept of batin or kebatinan.

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."