Acharya Prashant explains that duality is the false illusion of thinking that you, a chemical and material product of the past, are a sentient entity separate from a largely insentient world. He asserts that this is a false notion because, as we are, we are entirely material. What we perceive as consciousness is merely a function of the brain, which itself is a material product. Therefore, there is no real difference between the conscious and the material, and we are mechanistic processes, not truly sentient beings. The speaker elaborates that the ego's existence is based on this imagined division, claiming a 'para-material' quality when, in reality, we are just molecules. To become truly conscious, one must first give up this false, biological, and chemical consciousness. This involves recognizing that our feelings are just hormones, our thoughts are influences, and our wisdom is robotic inference. When one sees all of this as merely dead and molecular, a great laughter arises, and one becomes free. This freedom is when one truly comes alive, not as a mortal body, but in an immortal way. The first step to this awakening is to call the living as dead. If one continues to mistake the dead (the material self) for the living, true life will remain elusive. The speaker describes our current state as being like ghosts operating within a sack of skin, not truly alive at all. He further clarifies that the problem is not suffering, which is our fundamental reality, but the false hope for an imagined state called happiness. As long as one holds onto the option of happiness, suffering will seem like an unbearable problem. One must see that the option of happiness is a false illusion that doesn't exist. When this is understood, suffering reveals its true nature as a purifier, an energizer, and an elevator—it is love, depth, and creativity.