> myMatrix
  a b c
a . 1 2
b 1 . .
c 2 . .

library(Matrix)
myMatrix <- sparseMatrix(
    i = c(1,1,2,3),
    j = c(2,3,1,1),
    x = c(1,2,1,2))

myMatrix
# 3 x 3 sparse Matrix of class "dgCMatrix"
#
# [1,] . 1 2
# [2,] 1 . .
# [3,] 2 . .

mat.summ   <- summary(myMatrix)
lower.summ <- subset(mat.summ, i >= j)

sparseMatrix(i = lower.summ$i,
             j = lower.summ$j,
             x = lower.summ$x,
             dims = dim(myMatrix))
# 3 x 3 sparse Matrix of class "dgCMatrix"
#
# [1,] . . .
# [2,] 1 . .
# [3,] 2 . .