upekkha100 said: ” So at the early stage of a citta, is the cetana cetasika neutral too like phassa/sanna/vedana/and the rest of the universal cetasika?”
The cetana cetasika is ALWAYS neutral. It just combines the universal cetasika with a set of sobhana or asobhana cetasika that arises due to one’s gati.
– When the Buddha said, “cetanaham Bhikkhave kammam vadami“, he meant when the cetana cetasika combined a set of cetasika, the mind will then act accordingly (moral or immoral kamma could be done).
upekkha100 said:” at the very early initial stage, is it correct to say that cetana does not incorporate any of the kamma generating cetasikas(neither asobhana cetasika nor sobhana cetasika)?”
Yes. At the citta stage, cetana has only combined the 7 universal cetasika.
The 9 stages are discussed in a simple way at: “Citta, Manō, Viññāna – Stages of a Thought“.