Zen

Zen (Chinese: 禪; pinyin: Chán, Middle Chinese: dʑjen) is a school of Mahayana Buddhism that originated in China during the Tang dynasty as Chán. It was strongly influenced by Taoism, and developed as a distinguished Chinese style of Buddhism. From China, Chán spread south to Vietnam, northeast to Korea and east to Japan, where it became known as Japanese Zen.

Zen emphasizes rigorous meditation-practice, insight into Buddha-nature, and the personal expression of this insight in daily life, especially for the benefit of others. As such, it de-emphasizes mere knowledge of sutras and doctrine and favors direct understanding through zazen and interaction with an accomplished teacher.

The teachings of Zen include various sources of Mahāyāna thought, especially Yogācāra, the Tathāgatagarbha Sutras and Huayan, with their emphasis on Buddha-nature, totality, and the Bodhisattva-ideal. The Prajñāpāramitā literature and, to a lesser extent, Madhyamaka have also been influential in the shaping of the "paradoxical language" of the Zen-tradition.

Zen+

Zen+ is the codename for an AMD microarchitecture that will eventually succeed Zen. According to AMD, Zen+ is expected to bring a slight increase in instructions per clock over Zen, but not nearly as large as the jump from Excavator to Zen.

References

Zenú

The Zenú or Sinú is an Amerindian tribe in Colombia, whose ancestral territory comprises the valleys of the Sinu and San Jorge rivers as well as the coast of the Caribbean around the Gulf of Morrosquillo. These lands lie within the departments of Córdoba and Sucre.

The Zenú culture existed from about 200 BCE to about 1600 CE, constructing major water works and producing gold ornaments. The gold that was often buried with their dead lured the Spanish conquerors, who looted much of the gold. With the arrival of the Spaniards, the tribe all but died out. The 16th-century Spanish chroniclers wrote about the Zenú who were still living there, but recorded little or nothing about the history of the Zenú.

In 1966 the geographer James Parsons drew attention to rake-like patterns that were visible on aerial photographs of the wetlands in the lower reaches of the river San Jorge, patterns that could not have arisen naturally. Ten years later a major reconstructive research started.

Pre-Columbian period