For me to speak of the world around me as an illusion is not the same to say that it is not real. The illusory nature of my world, so often spoken of in Buddhist circles, is not for me the same as saying it is unreal.
The illusory world in which I exist is more like what I experience in vivid dreams. My waking moments are more like being in a similar kind of dream world. Things seem no less real than they do when I am asleep and dreaming.
When I am sleeping, I sometimes experience a small amount of agency. I am able to steer the direction my dream is going. When I am awake, not sleeping, I obviously have greater agency and can have a significant effect on where my illusory, not-sleeping dream world goes. I am aware that all my actions have outcomes and consequences, and so I have a great amount of agency in how my not-sleeping world evolves.
Even in my not-sleeping dream world, the idea of waking up has relevance. The name commonly given to the Buddha is based on “the awakened one.” For me becoming awakened means to wake from a world of inattention and habituation. My being awakened means to live in a world where consciousness is alert and vigilant. Perhaps it is still a world of dreaming, but my awakened experience is characterized more by bliss, clarity and non-conceptual awareness.
My sensory world is certainly real, even if it is illusory, like a dream. Becoming wakened to the illusory nature of that dream world helps me see that there is also a deeper reality that is beyond forms and concepts. I consider that deeper reality to be accessible to the degree that I wake up. It is possible to experience that reality that exists beyond what my senses tell me.
I still consider my sensory experience to be real and is itself a storehouse of richness. I indulge in the experience of sensory contact with my not-sleeping dreamworld, I open my heart to what I see and touch. In doing so, I also seem to have a habitual free fall into the deeper reality as well. It all is real.