In the mahayana our main concern is how to awaken ourselves. We begin to realize that we are not as dangerous as we had thought. We develop some notion of kindness, or maitri, and having developed maitri we begin to switch into karuna, or compassion.
The development of relative bodhichitta is connected with the paramita of discipline.
Relative bodhichitta is related with how we start to learn each other and ourselves.