>>123647
Desire is infinite. It's pointless to try and stop it. That's merely like placing a lid on top of a boiling pan- eventually it's going to overflow. I think Krishna phrases it best in the Bhagavad-Gita when he says:
<A person who is not disturbed by the incessant flow of desires—that enter like rivers into the ocean which is ever being filled but is always still—can alone achieve peace, and not the man who strives to satisfy such desires
When you start to attain some basic level of samatha and jhana in your meditative practice then you'll find that the desires are still there, however they're simply irrelevant. Lust, wrath, and so on are simply ephemeral clouds in the mind that arise from nowhere and vanish within moments. So why expend any effort fighting illusions? The second you engage with desire, pursuing or rejecting, it wins.
Anyways, if I had to make a recommended reading list for Buddha noobs, it would be
>The Doctrine of Awakening, by Julius Evola
>The Dhammapada
>The Wings to Awakening, by Thanissaro Bhikkhu
>The Sixth Patriarch's Dharma Jewel Platform Sutra
>Working Toward Enlightenment, by Nan Huai-Chin
The first two there are must reads.