Advaita Vedanta in a Nutshell

Advaita Vedanta says that the world is just names-and-forms whose underlying substance or reality is Consciousness or Awareness, much like a pot is just a name-and-form whose underlying reality or substance is clay.

Just like a pot is a mere appearance and does not “actually” exist because what exists is only clay, similarly, the world and its objects, including your and my body-mind, is a mere appearance and does not “actually” exist because what exists is only Consciousness.