Shaolin monks hone their kung fu skills in the courtyard of the Shaolin Monastery. Murals in the White Hall of the Shaolin Temple.

Authentic Shaolin Heritage: Training Methods of Shaolin Monks

72 Arts of Shaolin: (23) Luohan’s Exercise

LUOHAN GONG

Luohan’s Exercise | Brief Description 

Excerpt from the book: Jin Jing Zhong. Authentic Shaolin Heritage: Training Methods of 72 Arts of Shaolin >
The Luohan’s exercise is the inner Shaolin exercise designed to improve the ability to see at night time. This is the purport of this method. This kind of GONG FU belongs to the Buddhist system of exercises designed to train the keenness of vision. This kind of training is quite difficult for an ordinary man, especially at the initial stage, but it results in the ability to see in pitch darkness. This exercise is designed, for example, for those who enter the army to serve at remote frontiers, perform noble deeds and stand on guard of justice. By employment of this technique in pitch darkness you can kill the enemy or mine a fortress under siege and carry out a sabotage to eliminate some outstanding person, for example a commander. Both eyes are to be trained, in that case you acquire the ability to see the smallest objects in pitch darkness. But for that, it is necessary to be the full success in doing exercises...
<  A full description of the training procedure is available in the book: Training Methods of 72 Arts of Shaolin >
72 Arts of Shaolin: (23) Luohan’s Exercise

...After successful acquirement of this kind of Shaolin GONG FU that is also called "The Art of Night Vision" you will see at night almost as well as at day time. "Swimming Art" (QIU SHUI SHU) also includes some exercises for eyes, but the these exercises are basic ones, as they improve in addition the ability to see under water, therefore one can not help but train this exercise. It is reasonable that there is such a saying in the province of Jiangsu: "If you perfectly acquired the skill of ZAO ZI, you tower over the enemy in a combat like a mountain peak". By ZAO ZI masters from the province of Jiangsu allegorically meant an eyeball. Each day, before taking meal, it is necessary to eat a small amount of mutton liver boiled in water and improve periodically with it the inside (the internal organs).

72 Arts of Shaolin: (23) Luohan’s Exercise

72 ARTS OF SHAOLIN | Brief Descriptions

(1) Diamond Finger - (2) Twin Lock - (3) Striking with Foot  (4) Pulling out Nails - (5) Ringing Round a Tree - (6 ) Four-Part Exercise - (7) One Finger of Chan Meditation - (8) Iron Head - (9) Iron Shirt - (10) A Series of Blows - (11) Sweeping with an Iron Broom - (12) Hand - a Bamboo Leaf (13) Jumping Centipede - (14) Raising a Weight of 1000 JINs - (15) Celestial’s Palm - (16) Method of Hardness and Softness - (17) Cinnabar Palm - (18) Lying Tiger - (19) Swimming and Diving Skill - (20) Sluice Shutter weighing 1000 JINs - (21) Covering with a Gold Bell - (22) Finger Lock - (23) Luohan’s Exercise - (24) Lizard Climbs the Wall - (25) The Art of Lash - (26) PIPA - (27) The Pole of a Falling Star - (28) Poles of Plum Bloom - (29) The Art of Stone Padlock - (30) Skill of the Iron Arm - (31) Fist like a Bullet - (32) Soft Bones - (33) Frog - (34) Piercing the Curtain - (35) The Force of Eagle’s Claws - (36) Iron Bull - (37) Skill of Eagle Wings - (38) Hand of Sun Rays - (39) Exercise for Groin - (40) Iron Bag - (41) Method that Reveals the Truth - (42) Skill of Tortoise Back - (43) Skill of Deft Jumps - (44) Skill of Light Body - (45) Iron Knees - (46) Technique of Jumps - (47) Palm of Iron Sand - (48) Pulling a Silk Thread - (49) Method of drawing in YIN - (50) Rubbing and Thrusts - (51) Stone Pile - (52) Neither Lances nor Broadswords Can Wound - (53) Gong Fu Flight - (54) Hand of Five Poisons - (55) Skill of Water Separation - (56) To Fly Up to the Ridge and to Walk on a Wall - (57) Skill of Somersaulting - (58) Pole of Cypress - (59) Ba Wang’s Elbow - (60) Pinching a Flower - (61) Pushing a Mountain with Palm - (62) Technique of Horse Saddle - (63) Skill of Nephrite Belt - (64) YIN Fist Method - (65) Skill of Sand Bags - (66) Piercing Through Stones - (67) Pulling Out a Mountain - (68) Claws of Mantis - (69) Gong Fu Bag - (70) Palm of Guan Yin - (71) Raising a Pot - (72) Rubbing Palms

About 72 SECRET ARTS OF MONKS FROM THE SHAOLIN MONASTERY

BOOKS: 72 ARTS OF SHAOLIN

DVD: Shaolin and Taoist Health Qigong

    Main Secret of the Shaolin Training in the Authentic Shaolin Book

    Jin Jing Zhong. Authentic Shaolin Heritage:Training Methods of 72 Arts of Shaolin (Tanjin, China, 1934)