The Seba library treats Neighbor in 7 passages, across 5 authors (including Palmer, G. E. H. and Sherrard, Philip and Ware, Kallistos (trs.), von Franz, Marie-Louise, Wang Bi, Richard John Lynn).
If you praise your neighbor to one man and criticize him to another, you are the slave of self-esteem and jealousy. Through praise you try to hide your jealousy, through criticism to appear better than your neighbor.
The passage argues that contradictory behavior toward the neighbor is the primary psychological symptom of self-esteem and envy, exposing the soul’s hidden disorder.
, The Philokalia, Volume 4, 1995thesis
We actively manifest love in forbearance and patience towards our neighbor, in genuinely desiring his good, and in the right use of material things.
The passage defines love as actively and practically oriented toward the neighbor’s wellbeing, making the neighbor the concrete site where interior spiritual virtue is verified.
, The Philokalia, Volume 2, 1981thesis
The neighbor said, ‘When I hear you talk like that, I get frightened myself and am afraid to go home alone.’ … ‘But look at me!’ He pulled the peasant’s arm, and the latter looked around, and there sat the monster he had seen at the stream.
Von Franz uses the fairy-tale neighbor who is revealed as the shadow-monster to demonstrate that the familiar, proximate other can be the projected carrier of one’s own feared unconscious contents.
, Shadow and Evil in Fairy Tales, 1974thesis
the neighbor in the east slaughters an ox, but this falls short of the yue sacrifice of the neighbor in the west, which really provides that one with blessings.
Wang Bi’s commentary on hexagram 63 uses the contrast between two neighbors’ sacrifices to argue that timeliness and virtue of intent — not material lavishness — determine genuine blessedness.
, The Classic of Changes: A New Translation of the I Ching as Interpreted by Wang Bi, 1994thesis
Just as sheep and wolves cannot feed together, so a man cannot receive mercy if he tricks his neighbor.
The ascetic tradition holds that deception of the neighbor structurally forecloses divine mercy, linking social ethics to soteriological outcome.
, The Philokalia, Volume 4, 1995supporting
The third key question to ask yourself pertains to offending others, and it is complex because it has to do with your focus for the well-being of others.
Within a biblical-psychological framework, concern for the neighbor’s wellbeing is presented as a corrective measure against the self-centered logic of addictive behavior.
, The Heart of Addiction: A Biblical Perspective, 2008supporting
they should not merely love those who love them in return but should love their enemies, defined as those who will not pay back what they owe.
New Testament theology extends the category of neighbor to include enemy, radicalizing the ethical demand and anchoring it in divine acceptance of sinners.
, Theology of the New Testament: A Canonical and Synthetic Approach, 2005aside