Beans are easy. You have to soak every bean, except for lentils, to soften them a bit and to delete the gaseous enzymes (once you throw out the water.)

Soak beans for 8 hours or overnight. Throw out the soaking water and put them in clean water in a pot with about 3 inches of water above them. Boil until softe. For each bean it is a different cooking time, but usually about 2-3 hours.

Hope this helps. If you need any other information there are a ton of books out there with all the information you need, Laurels Kitchen is one of them. I find that most of the books that are big, like Laurels Kitchen, I use as reference on most everything. Also, mostly vegetarian books seem to have the most information on beans, legumes, lentils, and that type of protein.

Good luck!!