Is Feng Shui a religion? Is Feng Shui related to any religion?

Fundamentally, Feng Shui is not a religion, it is neither related to any religion. Feng Shui was invented based on observations and its objective is identifying a good natural habitat. In the development of Feng Shui culture, it has incorporated wisdom from Eight Trigram (八卦), Five Element (五行), Yin Yang (阴阳), and so on. And these theories were also based on the observations from our natural environment.

For instance, in Yin Yang, it is observed that all matters are like having two sides of a coin. Brightness vs Darkness, Positive vs Negative, Pessimistic vs Optimistic, and so on. Another example, in the Later Eight Trigram (后天八卦), each of the eight sectors, was invented based on the geographical condition and climate of China.

As you have seen from above, there is no involvement of religion in the invention of Feng Shui. However, there is a catch here, though Feng Shui is not a religion, religion can help to enhance the outcome of Feng Shui.

In Feng Shui, we believe, in harmonising Heaven, Earth and Man (天地人三才) factors. In modern analogy, we can understand these factors as Time, Location and Human factors. To improve our life, very often we have to be at the right time, right place and meet the right person, all at the same moment. Thus, the harmonising of these factors is deemed essential and important in Feng Shui.

Importantly, involvement of religion ritual in Feng Shui very often assist individuals to associate or establish unseen energy linkage with the identified auspicious sector, time and ornament. This therefore improves harmonisation of Time, Location and Human factors, and multiply outcome of Feng Shui.

Moreover, religion involvement in Feng Shui is not necessarily fixated at Taoism, Buddhism, etc, it can depend on each individual’s religion belief. The key objective is really to create good connection between individual and his/her environment, such that he/she can tap and leverage on the positive energy from environment.

In conclusion, Feng Shui is not a religion. However, involvement of religion can assist in the Feng Shui effect. Lastly, one can simply implement Feng Shui design without any religious element, and it is perfectly fine.