I've had a conflicted relationship with desire (as a thing) for many years. There is a Western interpretation of the tenets of Buddhism which basically says that desire causes pain, that by avoiding desire you can escape suffering. However, desire is part of being human, and not to have desire is in a way to avoid life. And life, I think, is a good thing: it is felt to be the greatest gift in Christianity, and a human life is an opportunity for bettering oneself in other religions.
But on looking into the question, I think what is damaging is not desire itself, but something that occurs at the intersection of desire and our lives. Something happens at the edge of desire, or we do something with it. This has been called "clinging" but I think that word doesn't quite capture it.
We take a desire and turn it into dogma. We say that because we desire something, therefore the universe is bad if it doesn't afford us that thing. We cling to the things we want, or more specifically, we cling to the idea of the things we want. They become solidified, fossilized into our psyche, and we suffer therefrom.
And what I said is just a stab at it. If anyone else can figure it out better, let me know.
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