You know, Sylveon could be a flying type by virtue of being associated with Air/Wind. The ribbons don't have to be wings.
Flying has always had a split identity between flight, birds, and wind attacks. Besides, most of the Eevee evolutions are elemental and they tend to have high Special which is now the primary stat used by wind moves like Gust, Air Slash, Hurricane, Aeroblast, etc.
At the very least, I don't think we need to go into Japanese Buddhist stuff to find a connection.