http://politicallyincorrectdharma.blogs ... msara.html
(The post is broader than that, so would Mods please feel free to move it if you think I have put this in the wrong section...)...the notion that being a monk is superior to not being one. The Buddhist texts certainly do imply that, and occasionally just flat-out assert it. Then again, any religious system asserts its own superiority, regardless of what it might be; and those same texts also warn that being a bad monk is worse, and more dangerous from a karmic point of view, than being a bad or mediocre layman.
But some people would like somebody to live up to the ideals that they believe in but are unable or just unwilling to live up to. It is good, and comforting, to believe that there are saints and sages in this world. Still, being a monk, or rather being a good one, is not easy, and most people simply don’t have it in them to be one. Anyhow, I am moved to make a somewhat rambling response to all this.