Enlightened people don't go to heaven, they transcend heaven if
they are liberated from samsara.
The goal of Buddhist is not to ascend to heaven, which is just
another samsaric realm though higher. Nirvana transcends all
samsaric realms. One who is liberated is no longer in the wheel of
rebirth. And also, enlightened people are humans... they don't turn
into angels or grow wings or necessarily have halos around their
heads.
There are countless people who are enlightened since Buddha's
lifetime, including many people in this forum. JonLS is also
enlightened, btw. 
He has spoken about his experiences in our forum
previously.
(though not necessarily Buddhahood or complete liberation yet, as
there are many stages... the arhat path has 4 stages of
enlightenment, the bodhisattva path has 10)
In >I am already a good person, why must I practise
dharma?
Originally posted by An Eternal Now:
Translation:
[b]The Best of the Best must still practice Buddhism
Q: I'm living without problems with clothes and food, I treat
others well, others treat me well, my life is happy, why should I
practice Buddhism?
A: You treat others well, others treat you well, your marriage's
relationship is very well, life is happy, but there is something
you cannot do and cannot say: "the present is very well, so I will
not get sick, I will not die." We should know that to practice
Buddhism, most importantly is to liberate from birth and death,
seek liberation, open our wisdom, walk the Bodhisattva way, that is
why we still have to practice Buddhism, learn (to be like a)
Bodhisattva. Though your life is well, but you are now in the human
realm, if you want it to be better, you can seek rebirth in heaven,
for that you have to practice the 10 virtuous deeds and avoid doing
any evil deeds. But to be further, though ascending to the heavens
is better, it is not ultimate, for when your celestial blessings
have finished, you will still fall, so how? We have to seek
liberation, walk the Bodhisattva way, until attaining Buddhahood --
that is the best and most ultimate, that is why all worldly beings
must practice Buddhism.[/b]
and my previous post quite a long time ago:
...What "circle" or "cycle of
life and death" means in Buddhism, is that sentient beings are
constantly being reborn in Samsara - the world of sufferings. They
are always reborn again and again in the 6 realms of existence in
samsara, according to their karma. Samsaric existence is full of
pain and sufferings, even in the Human Existence we have to go
through Birth, Ageing, Sickness and Death, and the eight
distresses. But even if you are born in a royal family, or even in
the celestial/heaven realms, samsaric pleasures are still
disatisfactory because of its transiency/impermanence... and by
attaching to these transient pleasures thinking they are real and
truly existent, permanent, we create even more sufferings. We
suffer as we do not know that all compounded phenomena are empty of
inherent, permanent, separate existence... and that all arises out
of conditions and are always transient. Therefore the Buddha taught
that suffering and disatisfactoriness is a fundamental truth in
life (i.e first noble truth), however he also teaches the cause of
suffering and the solution (second, third, fourth noble truth), the
path leading to the liberation from these sufferings.
Sentient beings cannot become liberated from samsara because they
are tied down by the bondage of their ignorance and karmic
propensities... due to an illusion of duality (means subject-object
separation) or a false sense of self, sentient beings are
constantly grasping on things and craving for samsaric pleasures
and existence, thus undergoing never ending suffering. Not only are
we being reborn lifetime are lifetime, we are constantly reborn
moment after moment even in this very life. This is because of our
illusion and attachment to our 'self' and our sentient thoughts
(our identification and attachment to thoughts and things caused by
ignorance), and the process of identification with a 'self' is
continued without an ending until we attain insights and
enlightenment. To gain these insights we have to practise the
eightfold path in our lives.
So therefore in Buddhism, Buddha showed us the path leading to the
complete ending of all sufferings, finding the abiding purity and
bliss of Nirvana, to become liberated from the cycle of rebirth in
Samsara. Buddha taught that the Buddhas of past and future all
teach Buddhism as "avoid all evil, doing all good, and purifying
the mind". Most religions only teach "avoid all evil and doing all
good", but only Buddhism teaches about liberation and the
purification of the mind. The problem with just "avoiding all evil
and doing all good" is that as a result we accumulate a lot of good
karma and avoid creating bad karma, meaning we can be reborn in the
higher realms or even the celestial realms like the heavens,
however we still cannot attain nirvana, we cannot be liberated from
the cycle of samsara.. and our enjoyment in these higher realms are
also limited and transient. Similarly as described just now even if
our lives are very good, there is still bound to be
unsatisfactoriness and sufferings.. if we cannot be liberated
moment to moment. Therefore when we practise Buddhism, also we
practise purification of the mind... through mindfulness we become
aware of and disidentify from all our sentient thoughts, our
habitual tendencies of the mind, the afflictive emotions and so on
due to identification with a false sense of self, and the
identification is also known as the false 'ego'. Our Buddha Nature
is like a clear mirror, our pure awareness, which unfortunately is
obscured from us because of a layer of dust, or mental defilements.
Through Buddhism we clean the mirror of its defilements to reveal
the clear bright mirror underneath. Therefore through practising
Buddhism we gain insights into the nature of reality, the nature of
our minds, our Buddha Nature, and through awakening from our
delusions we find the nirvanic bliss of clarity and liberation from
all sufferings in our lives...
