Reddit mentions of Mindfulness: A Practical Guide to Awakening

• See books with instructions for vipassana on Buddhanet.
  
• Here is a simple vipassana book featuring the Mahasi Sayadaw method of noting.
  
• Attend the famous 10-day residential vipassana courses. They are free and there is one near you. The structure is 3 days anapanasati and 7 days vipassana.
  
• Listen to Goenka's discourses from the same courses or read the transcription
  
• Search youtube for vipassana, mindfulness, insight, guided etc.
  
• See the original Satipatthana sutta.
  
• Listen to Sayalay Susila's audio discourses - the "mindfulness" ones here are based on the Satipatthana sutta.
  
• Gil Fronsdal's Introduction to meditation. Also see the other talks here.
  
• There are many good published books too, e.g. Goldstein - Mindfulness: A practical guide to awakening.
  
  So there are a lot of free and inexpensive resources. And you know what and where to look.

I was in the same boat as you when I got started and I found that using a good guided meditation app provided a solid starting foundation.

I have personal experience with Ten Percent Happier and Waking Up. Both are fantastic but should not be relied on for too long; it should only take a few months to form your own practice based on the techniques you’ll learn.

I’m at the point where I’m getting comfortable with my own daily practice after using each of those apps for a few months. One widely recommended book which I might look at soon is The Mind Illuminated. Another book I discovered recently, Mindfulness: A Practical Guide to Awakening, is written by respected meditation teacher Joseph Goldstein, who also narrates the intro guided meditations for Ten Percent Happier.

Edit: Waking up has a companion book that discusses what consciousness is and how to avoid the faith-based dogma that is often associated with meditation.

Here's a couple of ideas to help you get started:

1. Get yourself a copy of [Mindfulness: A Practical Guide to Awakening](https://www.amazon.com/Mindfulness-Practical-Awakening-Joseph-Goldstein/dp/1622036050/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1538490774&sr=8-1&keywords=mindfulness+joseph+goldstein) by Joseph Goldstein. He's an incredible teacher and the co-founder of the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, MA. This book is a treatise on the Satipatthana Sutta (Four Foundations of Mindfulness which is the foundation for Mahasi Sayadaw's Teaching
   
2. You should definitely find yourself a qualified teacher that you can interact with (in person/phone/Skype) once a month (or even three)
   
3. Agree with u/muni0 You could learn the Mahasi Method http://www.vipassanadhura.com/howto.htm
   
   Edited: How are your foundational practices? You might spend some time doing Samatha (concentration meditation) or focusing on body scanning in the U Ba Khin/Goenka style. These practices (along with Sila) will give you a nice foundation on which to build your Insight practice.

Joseph Goldstein's "Mindfulness - a practical guide to awakening" covers all your ABC - and then some :)

https://www.amazon.com/Mindfulness-Practical-Awakening-Joseph-Goldstein/dp/1622036050

I find it very good to read both original texts as well as modern teachers.

For example, Thanissaro Bhikkhu is one of the worlds foremost translators of Pali texts, considered the most original sources for what the Buddha said and did. One of my favorites from him is Wings to Awakening, in e-format here, but you can get it directly from his monastery, The Metta Forrest Monastery.

In just that book's introduction he gives a basic background of the Buddha and popular beliefs of that time. This helps me understand the context of why the Buddha emphasized what he emphasized. If you've ever read the Majjhima Nikaya's Dog Duty Ascetic it's obvious that to me, at least, in the US, and most in Western cultures, there is no context in my experience to understand why the Buddha would even talk like that.

More popular writers, such as Joseph Goldstein and Mindfulness where he discusses the Sattipatthana Sutta at length, give me insights into the sutta that may not have occured to me on my own.

Then, reading some of Robert Thurmon's works, I can begin to understand some of the Tibetan perspective on the Buddha's teachings. I am strongly rooted in the Theravada practices of Vipassana, and to learn more about other facets of Buddhism enriches my understanding.

Very basically, others can help me understand the Buddha through their modern perspectives on his teaching and life. I'm ever so grateful for their writings, talks, and any meditation courses or retreats they may offer.

May we receive all blessings.

https://smile.amazon.de/Mindfulness-Practical-Awakening-Joseph-Goldstein/dp/1622036050/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=goldstein&qid=1566730845&s=gateway&sr=8-2 is an amazing resource. You can start with the free sample.

Maybe read the sidebar of this subreddit, e. g. https://www.reddit.com/r/Meditation/wiki/faq#wiki_how_do_i_begin.3F

I think the Buddhist principle you're thinking of is satipatthana, the Four Foundations of Mindfulness or Four Ways of Establishing Mindfulness. This is a super important practice in Theravada Buddhism and the basis for the modern vipassana movement.

The Four Foundations are (1) mindfulness of body, (2) mindfulness of vedana (pleasantness, unpleasantness, or neutralness, sometimes called "feeling" or "feeling tone"), (3) mindfulness of mind (referring to the presence or absence of various mental states), and (4) mindfulness of dhammas (a sort of catch-all covering a huge range of phenomena discussed in the Buddha's teachings).

You can read an English translation of the original Buddhist scripture on this topic, the Satipatthana Sutta, here. I also recommend Joseph Goldstein's new-ish book, Mindfulness, which is a rich and comprehensive exploration of the whole body of Theravada-style Buddhist practice, with an emphasis on meditation practice, through the lens of the Satipatthana Sutta.

You're the one that needs to find yourself again then. I'd recommend daily meditation to accompany this meditation book:

(1) Mindfulness: A Practical Guide to Awakening https://www.amazon.com/dp/1622036050/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_wboYAbF706VED

This paying attention to yourself will help you gather your pieces of yourself.

And then I guess you're trying to be someone you're not, to gain the approval and validation of others. Maybe this is from childhood trauma, or how your parents showed you love only when you "acted" in a certain way, but my next recommendation will dive into all that:

(2) No More Mr Nice Guy: A Proven Plan for Getting What You Want in Love, Sex, and Life https://www.amazon.com/dp/0762415339/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_LcoYAbM18P7XT

Then I'd recommend taking these courses created by Jordan Peterson to find out who you are at a deeper level, and then reconstructing you and building you up again but authentically and not as a "character":

(3) 2017 Personality and Its Transformations (watch all these lectures): https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL22J3VaeABQApSdW8X71Ihe34eKN6XhCi

(4) https://www.understandmyself.com


(5) https://www.selfauthoring.com


Put in the work with what each material recommends and you'll grow into your true self. And just to let you know, I used to do the same thing and was a character until I unlocked my true being. My sister even said a few years back I had a "different" personality and it freaked her out, but she could tell from my authenticity and happiness that this is the real me now. The previous me was a character, and looking back, a depressed one at that even though I always seemed "happy".

What helped me also besides the introspective journey I recommend above, is talking to strangers. I'd meet people in bars and what not, and this was during a time when I was trying to learn how to meet girls, but an interesting thing happened: I started noticing how I act around people I don't know, and with the pressure gone of who I "should" be, I had the freedom to be who I am.

Another thing that's helping me to this day, is to get into a relationship that loves you for the real you. This comes after you've discovered yourself, but old habits may come up when you don't even realize it, and with my girlfriend she keeps me honest with myself.

Realize that this isn't a light switch, this is a hero's journey towards finding and unlocking who you are as a person, the peeling back the layers as you gain a deeper and deeper understanding of your true self. Change only happens to those that want it, and the fact that you took the time to read all this, and write what you wrote.. that means you want it.

See you on the other side.