I think you were talking about Pure Land Buddhism  in the first paragraph. The idea is that Buddhas and Buddhisatvas have created Buddha fields or pure lands where there are much fewer distractions and temptations than this realm.

The Amitabha Buddha in particular has created a pure land as part of his mission to liberate all sentient beings from samsara. The goal of Pure Land Buddhists is to first cultivate good merit and call out to Amitabha in this life so as to be reborn in his world and attain nirvana there. Amitabha has promised that all beings who are truly committed to enlightenment and called out his name ten timea will have a place in his pure land.

It's not mutually exclusive from Zen, lots of Pure Land Buddhists also practice Zen or Chan meditation and vice versa. In China especially, the two traditions are closely fused.