A practical meaning of the illusion of solidity means that because all things are composed of smaller things (and all smaller things are composed of smaller things) there is no solid, definitive thing in the entire universe, including us. Concepts and words (like "tree, for example) are useful and help us function, but they "solidify" an infinite set of causes and conditions beginning with water, soil, nutrients, etc. We are like trees.

The misperception of identity causes suffering: We take things personally and subscribe to the belief we are the words we use to describe ourselves. Ram Dass humorously offered, "You think you're a therapist? Tell that to a tree." How are we clinging to the things we believe to be "us?"

When we perceive experience clearly in the moment it arises and allow it we realize we are not our experience/our experience does not define us. A participant once reported her experience as "relaxing" when she brought equanimity ("things are as they are") into the sit. You could say that prior to that moment, the participant was identified with the turbulence, "believing" it to be true. When we stop trying to fix experience, the identification softens, the experience does not matter so much because it does not register as who or what we are.

When we develop strong concentration and mindfulness we recognize the illusion of self: When we observe breath, sound, body sensation, etc. we are learning, through direct experience, that everything that arises is changing and falling away continuously. There is nothing in the universe that is not exactly like the breath. Meditation is watching change at a very microscopic level. When we watch change at such a microscopic level, we discover our relationship to change. We discover our resistance to it. What is resistance to change? An attempt to make something solid, to create a false concept of solidity.

When we realize nothing is solid, we discover our true self: As you can expect, we experience these insights when we're not trying to experience them. Just trusting in being in the now, watching the ever changing, arising, passing experience, which "accidentally" reveals changeless, unshakeable awareness. So another way of saying it may be, "I thought I was me. I am me.

Why does this matter: When there is less identification with solidity, we are less defensive, less attached, less fearful, more generous, more loving, more happy. We are less threatened by others we may perceive as "different." We are not meaningless without the self. We are full of greater potential, interconnected with all else, identified less with separation and identified more with loving-kindness, compassion, joy, and equanimity.