Bhante Sujato’s free book, “history of mindfulness” is excellent and well worth reading. I’ve read Analayo’s two books on the subject as well, and there are other books, but IMO “history of mindfulness” is a must read. It will open your eyes about how suttas are transmitted, and diverge in the different lineages.
Two of the Chinese parallels are worth studying as well. They have some extremely interesting things not in the Theravada. The Theravada MN 10, and especially the DN 22(?) mahasatipatthana sutta, once I learned the truth about them I just abandoned them, never look at it again. Sujato’s satipatthana mula, linked above, I chant once a week.
But what I consider the real satipatthana essential collection, that I chant every day, is:
SN 54.3 suddhika sutta, 16 APS (ananapanasati)
AN 6.29 udayi sutta
SN 46.2 kaya sutta, or if i’m short on time, SN 54.2, for a “real bojjhanga paritta”, not the fake one in most chanting books. SN 46.2 also gives you the key instructions, step by step to getting jhana, replacing the similar section in theravada’s MN 10 which is kind of interesting in an abhidhammic sense, but useless for the practical “what action do I need to focus to every moment, right now, all the time” to get super samadhi and S&S
AN 4.41 (the portion not already covered by AN 6.29)
AN 3.16 which covers critically importnat things MN 10 doesn’t, that should be remembered and executed every day, all the time:
3 qualities lead to destruction of āsavā's
(STED Saṃvarap-padhānaṃ, indriyesu gutta-dvāro)
proper way to eat
proper way to sleep
and a few other miscellaneous things covering the maranasati category, that is offensively not even mentioned in MN 10.
I take B.Sujato’s thesis in “history of mindulfness” even farther, and I would say the best satipatthana sutta is “no satipatthana sutta”. In other words, don’t box yourself into a limited world of what other people (whose wisdom may not live to impressive credentials or superficial appearance of sagacity) think satipatthana is. Instead, read SN 46, SN 47, the relevant AN suttas, and do what I do above and assembly your own “satipatthana collection” of what you think the most crucial elements are, memorize it, and execute those instructions all the time. Always question authority.
