Reality is not just as we see it; neither is it, as Buddhists or Adwaitins would have it, empty or devoid of form.  However, it is essentially built or dependent upon consciousness / existence.  

The world of forms, and of the distinctions we see, is based upon this underlying consciousness.  It is like a kaleidoscope that can spin out endless patterns, all produced from the same essential base elements, without which none of the variety would be seen.  Consciousness is a vast well from which distinctions can arise, only to fall back and become reintigrated.

Most of us cannot observe the base consciousness; we can only intuit its existence from the plethora of forms.  Those few who do see it tend to lose their sense of the differences and distinctions. They come to inhabit a world where distinctions no longer exist. Seeing the one uniform underlying reality, they are unable to appreciate the world that the rest of us see. This is what underlies statements such as that the world is an illusion, or an appearance, or empty.

My understanding is that the world is real as it is, but would not exist were it not for the seed consciousness that underlies all things.

Seen in another way the perceived world exists within consciousness.  Theists might say that it exists within God.

The existence-consciousness cannot be experienced by the individual, because it is not or cannot become an object in the same way as things or concepts. In order to “experience” it, the individual would needs disappear and understand his own dependence on the seed consciousness, his own kinship with the underlying reality.

The sense of our own separateness or estrangement from all beings and things is the primary complication of our wrong perception of reality as made up of objects. It leads to egoistic exploitation, extractivism, competition with other humans and beings – and all the other evils that are, in our current era, driving humanity to the brink of extinction.

We cannot, simply with our eyes or other senses, modify our perception.  We can understand intellectually, in terms of concepts, the idea of a common unifying consciousness. That is at least a knowledge that could be taught, as in schools, and might help us to counter the dangers of our egoistic path toward self-destruction; and maybe this is necessary.

The vast majority of people have become so numbed by sensory perception that they are unable to deeply appreciate statements to the effect that “we are all one” or that distinctions are dependent upon a single underlying consciousness.

Furthermore, as mentioned earlier, we cannot directly experience this transcendental onenes without ceasing to exist as separate individuals. If we do, it is well-nigh impossible to appreciate from that place the real world of distinctions. We can no longer see the world as others see it; it no longer exists for us. Neither perspective is totally wrong; or is totally true.

What we can do, beyond intellectual understanding, or interpretation through concepts, is to intuit the underlying consciousness. We can, as it were, see it with our hearts.  This is a kind of inner vision that goes beyond our normal perception.  It is a question of feeling the inner reality behind the manifestations.  It is not what we ordinarlly call “experience”, because the latter is something that belongs to “me”, whereas this intuitive perception is rather something that envelops the “me”.  It is seeing with love.