I find this an excellent book by the late ex-neuroscientist and meditation adept, that illustrates how the mind works and distils the core of Buddhist meditation into easy to follow steps - the medtiation practice, as always, is the challenge to progress.
I have some The Mind Illuminated guided meditation audio files created by a meditation teacher if anyone is interested.
Has anyone used the book?
I used it–it was the first book I worked with. I still like it quite a lot and I often think about his guidance as I learn from my own meditation, or in the context of other readings I’ve done. For me, as a nerd (previously) pretty averse to religion, I found his nuts and bolts instruction really useful and free of “woo woo” entanglement which might have turned me off at the beginning.
For newcomers, his teaching is perhaps not the norm in that it sets beginners up to practice concentration, or Samatha meditation. It seems like insight/Vipassana practice might be more common for newbies. I’m not sure how much it matters that much, tbh. For me, just learning to sit and explore my reactions to sitting took plenty of time before the distinction between concentration and insight even meant anything to me.