For a sin that originates with the eyes, it is necessary to repent with the eyes...

It is brought down in the Writings of the ARI that when someone is Pogem Habris he greatly strengthens the side of impurity. Each time he causes many sparks of holiness to be given over to the external forces through the drops of seed that went to waste.

The Kabbalists also write that when a person sheds tears from his eyes over this sin. With each tear he raises one drop of seed. For each time he was Pogem, many drops came out of him, now with each tear he nullifies one drop.

There are many places in the Zohar that speak of the effectiveness of tears.

The reason tears are so effective is because they stem from the level of Chuchma and Pgam Habris stems from Dass in Chuchmah. One sees he can only spill seed by building up the desire with his will and knowledge (Dass). In fact the more Dass he put into the seed, meaning the more bound he was to his fantasies, the worst the damage is. The Ari writes that each time a person sins he gives a sword to the Yetzer, this is the sword of the wicked Esav, he then ascends to the source of the souls and cuts off a holy soul. From this he creates a huge fearsome Klipah. This causes great darkness in all the worlds, and this flaws the Upper Knowledge.

Now he does the opposite and with the deepest part of his will and knowledge he regrets his sins, until he sheds tears. He forcefully pulls up the holy sparks from the Klipah. When he raises these sparks many times they drag up with them sparks from other people who sinned as well. When the neighboring sparks see his sparks redeemed they become very jealous and force their way up as well. He therefore causes great rectifications as he cries.

Another reason is because the whole sin stems from the eyes. A person does not sin unless he first looks with his eyes, his heart then desires and his actions complete the sin. Therefore when he cries he is also fixing his eyes.

Even a person whose heart is so clogged up fro his actions that he can not cry, yet yells and moans as he tries his hardest to regret his action. This person, Hashem considers it as if he is crying. On this the verse says "He hears the sound of tears" meaning the sound even though there are no tears.

However fortunate is the one who actually does cry. If a person prays to Hashem to give him the power to cry, then in the end he will be able to cry.

However when a person cries he must be careful of three things.

Firstly he should be very careful not to become haughty when he thinks of what a big Tikun he is doing. Since crying is so big they try their hardest to trip him with haughtiness.

Secondly after one cries, many times he feels as if a large load was lifted from him. True, he did do a large Tikun but he should not think that just because he was able to cry a number of times that he had total fixed his sin. The sins he did caused a lot of damage and it is only by constantly doing Tikunim that he manages to erase them completely.

The Third thing is not to let the crying lead you into a state of depression. Depression is very bad and it can only hurt you. Therefore when he is done crying he should say the following. "Master of the earth, I believe with full faith that you are merciful and large to forgive, and surely you will stretch out your right hand to accept my repentance." After this he should try his hardest to make himself happy. He should sing a song if necessary.

The Kabbalists teach that there are two main places where a persons sins are revealed, on his forehead and on his hands. Therefore when a person cries he should take his tears and rinse his hands and forehead to help erase the marks of his sins.