The Buddha advises lay people/householders in MN150 on who to respect. Saying that those who are always virtuous are to be respected, not those who are sometimes virtuous.
The householders also answer that a if a person is just like them, then they cannot respect that person as ‘higher’.
So, if one is not on that level of purity, described by the Buddha, then we are not honourable???
He says ‘those who are free from craving, aversion and delusion…deserve honor, respect, reverence, and veneration’.
These householder’s questions isn’t about treating people with dignity in general but about who to venerate. The householders in the Kalama sutta is faced with a similar difficulty but in terms of which teachings to agree with.
