Most Buddhist believers know that the ultimate ideal of Hinayana Buddhism is to become an arhat, an enlightened and saintly man who has freed himself from the trammels of life and death. The ultimate ideal of Mahayana Buddhism, however, is the bodhisattva spirit of forsaking individual salvation and instead striving to redeem the souls of all sentient beings.
略有認知的佛教徒都知道，小乘佛教的終極理想是成為只求獨善其身、盡速「了脫生死」的阿羅漢；而大乘佛教的終極理想卻是不求個人解脫，但急著先普度眾生的「菩薩精神」。