The mind departed, and having been absent for a year, it came round and said: 'How have you been able to live without me?' They replied: 'Like children whose mind is not yet formed, but breathing with the breath, speaking with the tongue, seeing with the eye, hearing with the ear. Thus we lived.' Then the mind went back.

In plain words: The mind left for a year. The others lived like small children whose minds are not yet grown, but still breathed, spoke, saw and heard. So the mind came back.