The document discusses the life cycle of a React component which is divided into four stages:
1) Initialization - When the component is initialized with default props and state.
2) Mounting - When the component is rendered in the DOM and componentDidMount is called.
3) Update - When the DOM is interacted with by the user and methods like shouldComponentUpdate and componentDidUpdate are called.
4) Unmounting - When the component is removed from the DOM and componentWillUnmount is called.