Within the Portals application, the term Mandala is used in several interconnected meanings.
Mandala is a graphic projection of a person’s emotional state at the moment it is created within the application.
Mandala is a graphic metaphor of the user’s internal process aimed at harmonizing their psychological state. Users may engage with Portals methods both with clear, conscious intentions and from states that are not always fully understood or easily expressed in words.
Mandala serves as a visual language for capturing inner experience - a way to reflect on and revisit states connected to deep emotions, personal insight, and existential exploration.
From a cultural perspective, the term “mandala” in Portals is based on two traditions. On the one hand, it is connected to the Buddhist religious tradition, in which the mandala is understood as a symbolic projection of the universe. On the other hand, it relates to the method of exploring the subconscious proposed by Carl Jung, who saw spontaneously created mandalas as reflections of a person’s inner universe.
These two foundations are interconnected and do not contradict each other, despite significant differences in interpretation.
The technical aspect of mandala creation in the application is closer to Buddhist practices. The practical aspect, meaning the way the mandala is used and interpreted by the user in their personal process, is closer to the Jungian concept.
Within the Portals application, the term Grapheme refers exclusively to geometric shapes of any form offered to the user for the creation of a Mandala.
Within the Portals application, the term Layer refers to a single circular row of Graphemes arranged around a Mandala that is being created or has already been completed. In multiplayer modes of Portals, a Layer functions as the smallest unit of expression addressed to another co-creator or contributed to a shared group process.
Iteration is a repeated action. Within the framework of the project, an iteration refers to the selection of a specific scenario designed to adjust an emotional state. The term also applies to each individual step in the process of creating a mandala during a session, as the outcome is achieved through a sequence of many similar or identical actions.
The interpretation of these terms and the limitation of their derivative use apply exclusively within the context of the Portals application and its corporate materials.