Originally Posted by
strife_au
Where did the arhats that spt had originate from?
Basically: An unnamed eminent monk in Shaolin from a long time ago --> eleven different unnamed people --> the Benevolent Elder --> Shi Potian.
From Chapter 5, Ode to Gallantry
[Shi Potian] would never know that the lines on the bodies of these wooden figurines stood for the 'Arhats' Divine Demon-Subduing Skill' (Luo2 Han4 Fu2 Mo2 Shen2 Gong1), a set of techniques that was created by an eminent monk from an earlier generation of the Shaolin School. Every wooden figurine was an arhat in this exquisite collection that represented one of the greatest achievements in Buddhist internal strength cultivation techniques -- techniques that were extremely profound yet delicately subtle. The first step -- called 'Preserving the Heart for a Return to the Fundamentals' (She4 Xin1 Gui1 Yuan2) -- required the complete abandonment of all distracting thoughts, something that a single person in a hundred thousand men might not even be able to accomplish.
While intelligent and quick-witted people often had too many deliberations to succeed in practising this set of techniques, the dull ones were simply unable to figure out the variations that numbered in the thousands and ten-thousands.
The eniment monk who developed this set of techniques years ago knew that talented individuals who were intelligent, yet honest and simple, were very rare. Although there were monks who had high intellectual capacity as well as a level of spiritual cultivation that was devoid of material desires, practising this set of techniques would inevitably lead them to a whole-hearted embrace of martial arts and the eventual destruction of their Buddhist testimony.
The teachings of Buddha named 'greed', 'anger' and 'infatuation' as the Three Poisons. Money- or lust-induced greed was nevertheless still greed, and if it could bring delight to the practitioner of Buddhism, martial arts would certainly become another form of greed. Therefore, the wooden arhats were covered with layers of clay and powdered paint-washes, before they were painted with the genuine entry-level techniques for the cultivation of internal strength according to the Shaolin School. Consequently, this served to prevent later generations from over-rating their abilities at the sight of the wooden arhats and embarking on a futile training course that would either cause them to lose their lives or lead them away from the true path of Buddhism.
Knowing that the eighteen clay figurines were unusual treasures of the martial arts circle, the Benevolent Elder had put in all his effort into obtaining them. Yet, he soon saw that the internal strength cultivation techniques drawn on them were ordinary and unremarkable. Subsequently, he spent many months and years studying the figurines intensively, but he was unable to find anything that made them valuable. Since he did not doubt their value as unusual treasures, he was very careful in handling them, lest they were damaged. But without destroying the clay figurines, the wooden arhats would never emerge. Thus, the Benevolent Elder never understood the secret of the figurines until the day he died.
In fact, the Benevolent Elder was not the only one who failed to uncover the arhats. Since the days of the eminent Shaolin monk, the set of clay figurines had passed through the hands of eleven people. Each of these individuals handled the figurines with fear and trepidation, thinking deeply and making great efforts to protect them. These eleven eventually died in regret, taking one of the biggest doubts in their hearts into the yellow earth with them.
For more information on the Benevolent Elder, see:
Chapter 3, Ode to Gallantry
or
Facts and Figures of Ode to Gallantry
PS: It usually helps to read the translation more than once. Most readers who do so have told me that each subsequent reading had given them information/details that they had previously missed.