You speak of background and foreground consciousness as if they were two different modes of the same activity and in a sense it is true that the foreground consciousness is not different from the background consciousness, while the opposite makes no sense. The creative power of the former gives rise to the latter while that of the later only gives rise to fleeting thoughts and images. There is no analogy between them, awareness of consciousness is only a way of pointing towards what has nothing to do with name or location.