Hacker News Reader

No, you don't need to read the whole book just to start. It divides the practice into ten stages, and you don't move on from a stage until you have mastered it. So you only need to read about the first stage to get started.

Mind Illuminated isn't really about mindfulness meditation though, but about getting to the threshold of Enlightenment (this does involve mindfulness).

If anybody just wants to have some grease to start, get the Kabat-Zinn book and listen to the CD.

Can you share the details of your teacher, how you found him, etc?

Just to get started you would read the first chapter or two.