One of the central teachings of the Buddha is that desire must be cut off.  While knowledgeable teachers are
aware of the part that disciplined desires play in Buddhist practice, many choose not to teach it. They believe
that if people are taught at the beginning that desires must be disciplined, particularly sexual desire and greed
for food, many people would not even begin to practice. This is the view of one camp. The other camp takes the
view that even though many would not begin to practice, those that did would be more sincere and on better
footing to absorb the bumps along the way to realization. These teachers would rather have few disciples with
great potential than many disciples with little potential.

We are living in a world governed by desire. This is part of being human. As we seek to fulfill our desires we often
do not consider whether or not we are harming others, being truthful, ethical, moral, etc. We also do not consider
whether we are being honest with ourselves, even on a mundane level. In short, in our effort to fulfill our desires
we often hurt others and ourselves.

Buddhism's principle aim at desire goes far deeper. Buddhism looks upon desire as a realm of existence that
prevents us from realizing our human potential. In other words, even if we were ethical, truthful, and refrained
from harming others, as long as desire is the principle governing agent of our actions we will not be able to step
outside of its realm.

However entangling desire may be, it cannot be renounced forthright. If we simply stop fulfilling our desires; the
only thing we will accomplish is frustration, outwardly pure and inwardly perverted (in many ways.) If, for example,
we were to give away all our wealth, that would not stop our mind from marvelling at every object that it fancies. If
we do not eat the fine food that we are greedy for, we may get healthier, but our mind may still be consumed by
craving. Refraining from sex often inflames the mind. Clearly outward discipline alone will not lead to the
extinction of desire; at best we will become a Holy Fool.

Being a Holy Fool is to be outwardly holy and inwardly conflicted. This situation occurs when the disciple is taught
to discipline desire early in his practice; but not given the tools necessary to make the effort work. This is like
building a dam to block a river without creating the turbines the blocked water should be directed through to
generate electricity. Sooner or later the water will overflow or break the dam completely, leaving the water to flow
aimlessly in all directions. In similar manner, those who practice discipline early on in their practice often think
that the required effort has been met and do not exert themselves sufficiently in study and meditation. This is like
building the dam, but not the generators. Eventually these students break and their discipline shatteres. A good
teacher will not allow this to happen to his student, He will teach the student not to rely on the precepts alone and
instruct him in the additional work necessary. In other words, he will teach him how to work hard in his meditation
and analytical reasoning so that he can build the turbines necessary to guide the energy gathered from
maintaining precepts. His effort will not end in frustration.

Other teachers lead their disciples to believe that they can practice the Dharma without taking on the issue of
where their desires fit in the overall scheme of Buddhist practice. These teachers believe in first establishing their
students in a practice and then tackling the issue of desire  as their disciple's practice mature.. They believe that
once some skill in meditation is developed and a certain tranquility established, they will be better equipped to
deal with the issue of desire. This is the viewpoint of many Tibetan masters who teach in the West. We see
evidence of this in the fact that advanced initiations into tantric practices and advanced meditation techniques
are often given to large audiences of novice, or simply curious audiences. These teachers are of the view that it
is better to practice these techniques, than not practice at all.

Teachers from both schools of thought delight in seeing a greater commitment from their disciples , they just
have different views on how to wring it out of them.
Extinguishing Desire: The debate concerning when it should be introduced