Why is the ancient Buddha burning lanterns called the ancestor of ten thousand buddhas?

Because the ancient Buddha was Sakyamuni's teacher.

According to the Lotus Sutra, Sakyamuni once spent a lot of money to buy a flower to support the burning lamp. When the Lantern Buddha was happy, he gave the Buddha (the predecessor of Sakyamuni) a note, predicting that he would become a Buddha after the September 11th robbery and give it to Sakyamuni Buddha.

But according to the most conservative calculation method in Buddhist scriptures (one robbery is 4.32 billion years), the dialogue between teachers and students was at least 390 billion years ago. Later, Sakyamuni became the first of all buddhas, so his teacher was naturally the ancestor of all buddhas. Therefore, in China Buddhism, Sakyamuni Buddha majored in this life, which is the present Buddha, while Burning Buddha is the past Buddha, and Maitreya majored in the future. As one of the three archbishops of Buddhism.

Extended data

The Sichuan Giant Buddha is world-famous, but many people don't know that there is a giant Buddha behind it, that is, the ancient Buddha burns a lamp, and the two groups of giant buddhas are still on the same axis. Burning Buddha is the teacher of Sakyamuni Buddha, so it has always been concerned by the ethics of teachers and students. It has a very high status in Buddhism in China, so it is recognized as a master of ten thousand buddhas.

Burning Buddha was once the teacher of Sakyamuni Buddha when he was in the earthly branch, so burning Buddha was called "past Buddha". Many temples dedicated to the "Vertical Three" Buddha often worship the Burning Buddha (left), Sakyamuni Buddha (middle) and Maitreya Buddha (right) in the main hall, representing the past, present and future generations.

The third Buddha of Buddhism in China: refers to the past, present and future buddhas (the past Buddha is an ancient Buddha burning lamps, the present Buddha is Sakyamuni Buddha, and the future Buddha is Maitreya Buddha); Two refers to the Three Realms Buddha (Central Sakyamuni Buddha, Oriental Pharmacist Buddha, and Western Amitabha Buddha).

Baidu Encyclopedia-Burning Buddha