In the early Buddhist traditions, desire was viewed as a poison to be avoided. The later Mahayana view was not to avoid the poison, but to antidote it with the appropriate remedy. In Tantra, desire is seen as a potent energy to be used on the path to enlightenment, just as peacocks in the jungle thrive on poisonous plants and transform them symbolically into the radiant plumage of their tail feathers.
— His Holiness The Dalai Lama, Open to Desire by Mark Epstein