The nature of religious experience: prayer

Teresa's approach to mystical experience was through her 4 stages of prayer; she believed that true union with God could only be achieved by intense concentration and disciplining oneself through a life of prayer

• It is not possible for an individual to achieve this union by themselves; only through God's grace could a person move through the various stages
• Teresa compares the stages of prayer to the ways in which a garden is looked after
  • 'The garden can be watered in four ways: by taking the water from a well, which costs us great labour; or by water-wheel and buckets, when the water is drawn from a windlass...; or by a stream or brook, which waters the ground much better...; or by heavy rain, when the Lord waters…