Aloha Nacho,

I believe there are some tips already mentioned on this forum for you -do a quick search.

Be patient with the process.

Just getting to the point of being in the full lotus position is a step, being in it for 2 hours is another.

It's good to hear your're honoring your body by doing the stretches.

Another one I started doing a couple years back is, for lack of a better description, the sitting squat . Be gentle with your knees if this a new one for you, but it does a wonderful job opening the sacrum (it's great for pregnant women too and they show it in the Bradley Method classes.)

Your feet are probably are a little wider than shoulder length a part and with feet flat on the ground (you may feel a tendency to be on your toes), you squat your butt down to just off the floor. once again, be gentle with your body on this one and go slowly. Spend a couple minutes a day doing this -people at the office will look at you funny, so choose where you do it wisely , and after a while the lower back and sacrum will open and you body will being in a relaxed vertical position with you arms relaxed over you knees.

In the full lotus position, you want your legs lying flat on the ground. Don't press down on your knees to get the legs flat, the relaxing, stretch and opening needs to happen in the hip area for that.

Be gentle with much Love,

Shawn

p.s. Chunyi has his once a year level IV retreat along the beautiful shores of Lake Superior August 24-26. I had to pull out of it due to running pieces of the Paul Scheele retreat that week, but Gallen, my wife, and other members of this forum will be there. Please mark it in you brain or calendars and send them Love, energy and prayers during those growth-filled days.

p.p.s. This month and next, Earth is catching up with Mars,  an encounter that will culminate in the closest approach between the two  planets in recorded history. The next time Mars may come this close is  in 2287.  Due to the way Jupiter's gravity tugs on Mars and perturbs  its orbit, astronomers can only be certain that Mars has not come this close  to Earth in the last 5,000 years but it may be as long as 60,000  years.

On August 27, Mars will come within 34,649,589 miles and will be  (next to the moon) the brightest object in the night sky.  It will  attain a magnitude of - 2.9 and will appear 25.11 arc seconds wide.  At  a modest 75-power magnification Mars will look as large as the full moon to  the naked eye.

[This message has been edited by Shawn_Grim (edited August 01, 2003).]