How do I mute a midi track during tracking?

I have midi latency.  I bought an outboard sound module for monitoring during tracking.
How do I stop my midi track from triggering a VSTi or general midi sound when I track midi?
I'm looking for the easiest way to mute during tracking, but triggering a VSTi or general midi upon playback.
 
Having a hard time muting the midi during recording.  Using Sonar X2.
 
I feel like I've toggled every setting on my midi channel and it still plays either general midi.
Even if I archive the VSTi track, it triggers some other VSTi (even though it's set to trigger an archived audio track).
 
Is there a way to mute a midi channels input so it's silent so I can track on outboard sound module?
 
Thanks.