The future means “about to be” or "that is to be.” What we hope to be lies in the future which is being willed out. What appears now, is the result of this willing process. The present just didn’t come out of the blue, in other words. The present, according to the Buddha, is fabricated, willed, and dependently originated. Even our psychophysical body, i.e., the Five Aggregates, is previously composed and willed out.
In some mysterious way, to exist in the present, mind has already willed this. By the same token, if mind fully realized itself being thus pure Mind shorn of all adventitious defilements, it would always be this and never other, this would be from perfect willing as opposed to imperfect willing becoming always other than itself and unfulfilled.
Making a jump here, over time including may lifetimes, we have the capacity to will ourselves into any state of being including Buddhahood, provided, in the case of Buddhahood, we are able to crystalize pure Mind. After that, so to speak, Mind re-wills itself which is samadhi. The growth of itself is also the growth of its power over imperfection. This pure willing of itself is also compassion (karuna) which influences all beings. The world becomes, over time, illuminated instead of dark.
The future is not a meaningless term. Mind continually wills the future, in particular, what is about to be. The world that has come to be, which has been previously composed and willed out is also the world of former karma (pauranam karma). Karma, as doing or action, in one sense, implies mind not yet in complete harmony (samadhi) with itself. In harmony, it is Buddha Mind.
“The world fares on by karma. Mankind fares on by karma. Karma binds beings, as a linchpin the quickly moving chariot” (Sutta-Nipâta 654).
Making another jump, for mind to awaken to itself, thus becoming pure Mind which as come to be, involves willing/conceiving pure Mind adequately. This is where the effectiveness of koans and the study of Sutras are of great value. They limit and yet direct what can be willed/conceived. Only a perfect intuition of Mind is permitted, in other words.
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